Iryna and Sergey's IVF journey

My name is Amy and I am fundraising for Iryna and her husband Sergey. Iryna came to the UK to stay with me and my family in April on the Homes for Ukraine scheme. Sergey has not been allowed to leave due to conscription laws.

 

Already I feel a strong connection with Iryna and have discovered a person who is brave, gracious, kind and exceptionally resilient. We got to know each other a little over Whatsapp before her arrival and this was one of her messages (please forgive the literal translation from Ukrainian to English but I do not want to alter her words) –

 

"War is not just killing and physical destruction. This is the destruction of hopes, plans. We understand that life will never be the same. In 2016, my husband and I experienced a huge tragedy in our lives. We lost a baby, our girl was stillborn. Only after almost six years, I can talk a little about it. We have been going to this pregnancy for a very long time and consciously. This was made possible thanks to IVF. But, unfortunately, we never became parents. But we still had hope. Unfortunately, the war ruined these plans."

 

This message made me weep. Not only had they experienced the death of their baby but then the war had robbed them of their final efforts to become parents. Iryna is 37 and all the time the war rages, her chances of motherhood are diminishing.

 

A few weeks into her stay with me she opened up about her experiences. She told me that they have one existing embryo stored in Ukraine. It recently had to be moved from Kharkiv to Kyiv due to the bombing.

 

It was while chatting to my sister, who reminded me of my tenacious nature, that I decided I wanted to do everything I could to help. So here we are. I want to raise the money to help Iryna and Sergey realise their dream of becoming parents. There are several options, all involving specialist couriers and expensive fertility procedures.

 

Iryna finds it hard to accept help, but given their situation with the war it would be impossible for them now to raise the funds themselves. I feel like it could be any one of us plunged into the nightmare that Ukrainians have found themselves in and I hope that people will feel motivated to help. The repercussions of Russia's invasion of Ukraine are far reaching but now, thanks to modern science – and hopefully, people's generosity –  the war and the fact that Iryna and Sergey are currently 1,750 miles apart won't stop them becoming parents. We have set a target but this will likely increase as the process continues. Any surplus funds will be donated to the UNICEF Emergency Fund to support Ukraine's children.

 

Thank you