John Powell and his wife are celebrating the arrival of their daughter, 21 years after he was told treatment for aggressive testicular cancer would leave him infertile
John Powell and his wife, Chenphen, were overjoyed at the arrival of their baby girl, 21 years after John was diagnosed with cancer and told that chemotherapy would leave him infertile.
John was diagnosed with testicular cancer when he was 32. He was given just six months to live and told that chemotherapy would leave him unable to have any more children. John, now 53, had a sperm sample frozen before he began chemotherapy.
Fastforward two decades, and amazingly Chenphen fell pregnant after just one cycle of IVF, using John's frozen sperm. The couple only had enough money for a single cycle and were also fighting against the clock because strict rules meant John’s sperm would have to be destroyed when he reached 55.
Medical staff at the Bridge Centre, London, where John and Chenphen underwent treatment, said it was a British record for 20-year-old sperm to be successful in its first cycle.
John told the Daily Mail, “We couldn’t be happier – she is a wonder of medical science… It’s astonishing that something as beautiful and perfect as Jasmine could come out of a time that was so painful and difficult.”
Baby Jasmine arrived on February 20.
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