NHS nurse gives birth after IVF treatment funded by £1m family lottery win

An NHS nurse who was told by doctors to have children “sooner rather than later” has given birth after funding IVF treatment with her share of a £1 million family lottery win.

Rebecca Brown said her new baby, Ethel, is “priceless” after she was born at the same hospital she works at in Nottingham on Friday.

The 39-year-old single mother spent £12,000 from her £250,000 share of the jackpot on the IVF treatment and admitted her baby was a “very lucky girl” - but said she would not be spoiled.

Miss Brown, who works as an orthopaedic nurse at the Queen’s Medical Centre, said: “It’s been manic and full on, that’s for sure.

“When it happened, I sort of ended up on Saturday morning in a bit of the daze, because I couldn’t believe that she was my baby and I thought I was dreaming."

Miss Brown won her share of £1 million on the National Lottery as part of a family syndicate in August 2016 with her 63-year-old mother Yvonne, her 64-year-old father David and her 37-year-old sister Julie.

The lucky lottery winner contacted CARE Fertility in Nottingham for a one-to-one consultation after she decided she wanted to have a child.

Recalling the moment she knew the IVF treatment had been a success, she said: “The first thing I did was I FaceTimed my sister and said ‘morning Auntie Julie’ – and she went in to tell my mum and dad that it was a success.

“Then I cried a little bit – I never really thought that we’d get to this stage.”

The NHS nurse was told by doctors in February 2018 to think about having children after a smear test revealed abnormal cells which turned out to be pre-cancerous cells in her cervix.

Addressing what her doctor had told her, Miss Brown said: “She just said with this history, and my age as well, I should think about having children sooner rather than later.

“And I just thought, I knew what I wanted – it just made me realise what I wanted more than anything. So I just went straight for it."

Miss Brown required a sperm donor as part of her IVF treatment, but said she would have been happy with any match.

“I don’t want to offend anyone, but I just said I didn’t want any gingers and I wanted someone of average height – so I was quite broad and I was matched quite quickly,” she said.

Ethel was born on Friday, weighing seven pounds and 10 ounces.

“Ethel was a name I really liked, but I also had a patient called Ethel, who was a really cute sweet old lady", she said.

The jackpot winner said her new baby would still probably have been born without the lottery win, but she would have needed contributions from her parents.

She said: “Ethel would probably be here on contributions from mum, dad, sister – they would have helped me out.

“I would have gone through it because they would have helped, they would have helped me and the they knew how important it was for me.”

Miss Brown described her daughter as "lucky", but said she does not want to raise her as a "spoiled little girl".

“I mean she has been very spoiled as a baby – but money won’t make you better than anyone else.

“She’ll be very well off, there’s no doubt about it – but she’s going to hopefully be grounded.”

Asked if she could put a value on her new baby, Miss Brown said: “She is priceless but she’s worth every penny.”