Katie & Ollie start a family. Our IVF journey.

Hi, our names are Katie and Ollie and we’re raising funds to start our family

We started trying to conceive around six years ago, after two years we were referred to the fertility clinic for further tests. The tests revealed some male fertility issues and that Katie has a declining egg count. We were sent for our first (and only NHS funded, the postcode lottery means people in Nottingham only get one funded shot) in March 2021.

Unfortunately, the first round IVF failed when none of the eggs matured.

We self funded our second round in October 2021. This time we collected three eggs, two were unsuitable, but one survived to the blastocyst stage. Project George (The “conceived” date gave us a due date of the date George Jetson was going to be born) was set in motion. Unfortunately the embryo did now stick in the two week wait.

We completed our third round October 2022, code name project Casper as we started the stimulation drugs on Halloween, and partially because Katie’s dad calls her Casper as a nickname. Unfortunately, this round produced no eggs at all. We were told that this is something that never usually happens.

This time we took a large break between rounds, to spend time getting our bodies (Ollie was marathon training) and minds into the best position. We’d also never tried IVF in the summer, a bit of sunshine cheers everyone up right?

We completed our 4th round in August 2023. Going into this we decided this would be our last round, with the cost of living going up and with us both getting a little older (we’re only 38 but this classes us as geriatric!) We were armed with a new protocol, different drugs and achieved our most successful outcome to date. THREE EMBRYOS! Two were transferred back (code names Vic and Bob) but unfortunately did not make it through the two week wait.

This is where we need your help, our third embryo has been frozen, and will cost around £3000 to thaw, and transfer back into Katie (Project Austin).

Please help us complete to our family, it’s been a project that has been 5 years in the making and we’re not ready to throw in the towel yet! Our Motto has always been “Life will find a way” and we truly believe that this time is our time