The crowd-funded IVF baby

With many couples sacrificing their life savings to IVF, and others being priced out of treatment all together, people are looking at new ways to fund their treatment. One couple crowd-funded their IVF on Facebook.

And in happy news, the couple have since welcomed into the world a baby girl.

Marisha Chaplin, 26, and Jon Hibbs, 29, met while they were both undergoing cancer treatment.

Marisha always knew she would have fertility problems due to her cancer treatment.

“I was told by the time I was 23 my ovaries would give up,” she told the BBC.

“At 16 my gynaecologist said ‘You need to try for children sooner rather than later if you want them’.”

Their first child Evie, born using a donor egg via IVF, was born in May 2016.

Not long afterwards, Marisha joined the Facebook mother’s group, May Babies 2016.

After a while, the couple decided to try for a sibling for Evie, but was struggling to afford the cost.

Then in July last year, members of the May Babies 2016 group created a video for the couple, which they shared via Facebook Live.

In it, they revealed the members of the group had secretly raised £2,000 for the couple’s IVF treatment.

Soon after baby Isla was born, Marisha began messaged the group, to share the good news.

“We didn’t ever think we had the chance to have another little one and the fact she’s here is so surreal,” said Ms Chaplin.

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