Nay and Luke Chadbourne are NHS paramedics (Picture: TFP Oxford Fertility / SWNS)
A couple in their thirties have helped 16 people to have children through sperm and egg donations after deciding they didn’t want kids themselves.
Paramedics Nay Chadbourne, 33, and Luke, 37, considered having children early in their relationship, but changed their minds as time went on.
But after seeing friends struggle to conceive and have miscarriages, the pair decided to help others struggling to get pregnant.
Since they signed up with a private fertility clinic in April 2022, Luke has donated sperm to help 10 families and Nay has donated 84 eggs – helping six families.
Nay from Banbury, Oxfordshire, said: ‘When you get married, the next question is always ‘when are you having children’.
‘We still get that a lot, and we have been married four years. I don’t want people to think I don’t want them because I hate children.
‘We just really don’t want our own. We work as paramedics, we’re very busy and we are part of a non-profit organisation that responds to natural disasters so can be asked to up and leave the country with short notice – we have very busy lives.’
‘Our main motivation is we have had friends who have gone through the IVF process and had multiple miscarriages which is heartbreaking.
‘If someone else can make use of my eggs and Luke’s sperm, then we want to help them in the same way that we give blood and are on the stem cell register.’
People still ask when they’re going to have kids (Picture: TFP Oxford Fertility / SWNS)
Luke added: ‘No one should have to justify their decisions to people.
‘Fertility and choosing to have a family is a very personal matter and where we are open to talking about being donors.
‘It can be difficult for other people who are struggling.’
The pair met in 2016 when they were getting a hepatitis B vaccine for work and Nay said it was love at first sight. They moved in together eight months later.
Nay first started thinking about egg donation when she was 27 – around the same time she decided she didn’t want a family of her own.
Nay and Luke then contacted TFP Oxford Fertility, part of TFP Fertility UK – IVF and fertility specialists – and were accepted to become donors.
Nay described the process as ‘really straightforward’ (Picture: TFP Oxford Fertility / SWNS)
Nay said: ‘Once I was signed off it was really straightforward. I injected myself for 14 days.
‘You are constantly having scans the whole way through, which is great.
‘The staff at TFP Oxford Fertility were so friendly and supportive, they really made me feel at ease at each stage of the process and kept us well informed.
‘The first time I did it, I grew 39 eggs. My friend took me to the surgery, which took a few hours and everything was fine.’
First donors have to inject themselves for 14 days to suppress their natural hormone production. Then they will have a scan to check that their natural cycle is fully suppressed.
A day or two before the eggs are collected, donors receive a hormone injection to help the eggs mature and then the eggs are collected during a small procedure.
Nay said her family ‘weren’t thrilled’ when she told them she was going to donate her eggs.
She said: ‘I think it is more because they have nieces and nephews, we are all on ancestry websites and we know that if one of my donor children went on to that they would link.
‘It’s difficult to imagine having a biological link to someone you have no contact with.
After donating her eggs, Nay said she recovered quickly and was back running within three days.
Nay said: ‘After the first time, I was like “I don’t know if I want to do that again” as it was very difficult to fit around my schedule.
‘We went abroad for a few months for work and when we got back we went self-employed so I decided to do more egg donating.
‘This year I have done two donations and I did them pretty much back to back.’
They’ve helped 16 families already(Picture: TFP Oxford Fertility / SWNS)
The last time she donated eggs, Nay produced 17, and she doesn’t know if she will donate again.
She said: ‘Each donation helps two couples, so that is potentially six babies.
‘I don’t think I will donate again, the only exception would be if I had one of my friends who needed eggs and wanted to use mine.
‘Also, my egg count has gone down hugely since I first did it. I have gone from growing 39 to growing 17.
‘Whereas 17 is still a good number, I wouldn’t want a couple to be relying on me as a donor and not give them many to work with.’
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Nay said her family ‘weren’t thrilled’ by her plan.