Help us to start our own little family ❤️

Hi, my name is Ciara and I am in a loving and committed relationship with my fiancé Aoife.

I studied Early Childhood Education in college and I'm now working the last 5 years as an Early Years Practitioner in a crèche. This is a perfect job for me as I have such an ever growing passion to nurture, to care for and to help children grow to their greatest potential.

Ever since I was a small child myself, I always knew I wanted to be a mother some day, but unfortunately in October 2020 this dream became further and further out of my reach.

For 2 and a half years, I was in agonising pain daily, I couldn't eat or sleep and was in constant pain. I wasn't eating, but my stomach was getting bigger and bigger. When it really started to take control of my life, I went to my GP about it numerous times. I was prescribed all the laxatives and fibre supplements under the sun because my GP suspected it was Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), but never examined me. I was walking the floors every night in the weeks leading up to October of 2020, when one night the pain got so unbearable when I collapsed and had to be rushed to the hospital.

After many hours of waiting, many drips, morphine pumps, MRI and CT scans, ultrasounds and xrays, it was brought to my attention that there were 2 very large ovarian cysts growing on my ovaries, one had over turned on itself and that both needed to be removed ASAP. After weeks of waiting, been admitted to hospital on 3 separate occasions I finally got the call for my operation to be done in St James's hospital in Dublin.

Thankfully the cysts were removed and they were not cancerous, but I was told some devastating news that day. The surgeon told me that I had stage 4 chronic endometriosis and Polycystic Ovaries. They initially said that both ovaries were absolutely perfect, and that my chances of future fertility are just as good as the next girl, but a couple of weeks ago we found out that this is in fact not the truth at all.

Myself and Aoife began our journey of creating our own little family at the beginning of this year, and so far it has cost us over 1000 euro already and we've only got scans and bloods done. But the worst thing of all, is that the fertility consultant told us that:

1. My left ovary is basically non existent

2. The right one is OK at the moment, but the fallopian tube connected to the right ovary is almost blocked up.

3. My endometriosis is one of the worst cases he has seen throughout his years as a fertility consultant.

4. He told me that under "normal circumstances" I'd be looked at as a baby in regards to my age as the average age for those attending the clinic is 38, I'm only 26 I thought this would have been of great benefit to me. But, because of my endometriosis and pco, my time is well and truly being cut very very short. He told us that we need to be extremely proactive about this, as my fertility clock is ticking second by second and its only going to get worse.

In Ireland, unfortunately it's with a heavy heart that I say this, but same sex couples, even when they have been diagnosed with infertility conditions like myself, are not given access to any financial funding or subsidies from the state and our only option is to avail of private IVF treatments, which in turn costs thousands and thousands, which we all know in this day and age is very hard to come by.

To try and make our dreams come true, it's going to come at a hefty cost. Blood tests can range from €100 - €200 each, hycosy scan is €300, each consultation with the doctor is €100, each vile of sperm is €895 each, the pregnancy slot is €550 (which is compulsory) egg freezing is €2000, €100 per session of fertility counselling that is compulsory, the medication that I will have to take before and during pregnancy will be at least €114 a month and the IVF treatment then starts at at least €4000-€6000 which does not include any future scans/consultations and blood tests...... And the list goes on and on.

Our dream of getting married to each other, the dream of living in our own home, and any other future plans have been put on hold as we are prioritising this as our main dream, focus and hope that we can one day in the future become mothers to our own little miracle baby.

I am really lucky to have finally found a partner that shares the same passion for starting a family and raising our own little child together, with the combined love we both have for children it will be abundantly clear that the child/children will be loved more than life itself for certain.

If you all could please donate, any small or large donations will all be extremely appreciated and we would be forever grateful for any contribution given towards making our dreams come true.

If you could also please try and spread the word and awareness for all those going through the same problems as us, please could yous share with all of your friends, families, relatives, neighbours, work colleagues etc, that too would be incredibly appreciated as it would be one step closer towards achieving our life long dream.