Widow faces legal fight to start family with late husband's frozen sperm after paperwork blunder

• Watch Matthew Hudson's report for ITV News Anglia

A grieving widow has been left unable to start a family using her late husband's frozen sperm - because of a paperwork blunder made 11 years ago.

Jade Payne, 35, of Northamptonshire, is now going to the High Court to battle to have the baby she and her husband Daniel had dreamed of for years.

He had his sperm frozen in 2010, before he was treated for testicular cancer a second time. But the couple, who had decided to start a family after they were married in June 2018, were forced to wait even longer after discovering that Daniel needed to undergo chemotherapy.

They were due to start fertility treatment in September 2019, when Mr Payne was told the brain tumour he had been living with for more than a decade had grown.

His condition rapidly deteriorated and he began receiving end-of-life care at their home in Brackley, where he died two days before Christmas in 2019.

Mrs Payne decided she was ready to pursue IVF using his frozen sperm to have a baby - only to be told that a paperwork error meant she could not access it because of a technicality.

The absence of her name on his original documentation meant she would have to argue her case for lawful use in the High Court, she was told.

Mrs Payne, who has had to gather letters from family, friends, a GP and some of her husband's carers to prove his wishes, said: "I think it's disgusting that I have to prove anything to the court.

"He was my husband and I want his child. It's something we both wanted - we were planning it together and then he died before we got the chance.

"After everything we went through in our 10 years together, the next step was to have a child of our own. We'd chosen baby names, talked about how we wanted the nursery to look, what pram we'd buy, we knew exactly what we wanted."

Mrs Payne said there had been no mention of a problem with the documentation when, in 2014, she first visited the clinic where her husband's sperm is being stored.

She claims she was also unaware of any issues when she and Mr Payne signed documents for NHS-funded IVF treatment at John Radcliffe Hospital in July 2019.

She said she had even received a phone call in October 2019 asking if she was ready to collect her drugs to begin fertility treatment, which she declined due to Mr Payne's poor health.

The widow, who works as a nanny, said: "I do understand the legality of not having my name on the original document - it's something Daniel thought he had taken care of.

"But, even so, he and I have both signed documents since then and he was my husband so you'd think common sense would prevail."

Now she fears that she faces a lengthy and expensive legal battle to have the family they both dreamed of.

"To have a mini Daniel running around would mean the world to me," she said. "It's just a shame I'm going to have to fight for it, especially considering how hard I fought alongside Daniel in his last three months of life.

"If the judge was to say no, it would be heartbreaking. I don't know what I'd do - probably curl up into a ball, because, in effect, it would be like losing Daniel all over again."

Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer.

Historically 1% of the national cancer research spend has been allocated to the condition.

Hugh Adams of the charity Brain Tumour Research said: "At a time when Jade and Daniel should be planning their family together as husband and wife, Daniel has been taken away by this devastating disease leaving Jade to face the future alone.

"We will be thinking of Jade as we approach Christmas and the anniversary of Daniel's death. This will be such a difficult time of year for her, as it is for many families affected by brain tumours."

Brain Tumour Research is campaigning for more funding to invest into research on brain tumours in order to speed up new treatments for patients and ultimately find a cure.

It is calling for a boost in national annual spending to £35m in order to improve survival rates and patient outcomes.

• You can visit Ms Payne's fundraising page here