Lesbian couple who asked strangers to fund their baby now happily pregnant
Two lesbians who asked complete strangers to fund their attempts to have a baby have revealed that they’re expecting.
Chelsea Cruickshank, 25, and her partner Sarah launched a campaign last month after alleging that the NHS had denied them intrauterine insemination (IUI), which uses a sperm donor, for years.
The Middlesbrough couple’s page on GoFundMe raised just £235 of the £7,000 they asked for, but helped in a decisive but unexpected way: it found them a sperm donor.
And now Chelsea – who was desperate to be a mum and said she and Sarah “just want to have a child like any other couple” – is pregnant.
The happy couple said they were “over the moon” with the news, with Chelsea telling Gazette Live: “I’ve been sick and I’m very run down but we are just both so excited.
“It has been hard as hell,” she said.
“I first enrolled for help on the NHS when I was 20, so it has been a five-year journey.
“The hardest thing has been trying to find a suitable sperm donor, but the appeal really helped.
“We had about four people get in touch, but I picked someone who looked like my partner so that was win-win for me.”
And she said that after such a long and arduous struggle towards motherhood, she had no extra expectations for the baby.
“I’m not bothered if it is a boy or a girl as long as they are happy.”
Chelsea posted a picture on Facebook to celebrate she and Sarah both becoming mothers.
The couple decided to fund the procedure themselves, so they’ve decided to donate the money raised to other people who need help having children.
Chelsea has even outlined the newly pregnant couple’s plan to start a charity inspired by the journey they have been on.
She wrote that the GoFundMe page was “now dedicated to other people trying for their families”.
Chelsea pledged that the couple would “not keep a penny of this money and it’s all going to anyone who needs help having their families”.
She added: “I also need advice on making this into a charity and having someone take this over while we concentrate on starting our journey into parenthood…thanks!”
The happy ending comes after Chelsea had to deal with receiving hate mail at the beginning of the campaign.
Complete strangers told her she shouldn’t be crowdfunding, and should “get a bloke.”
Nevertheless, she persisted. She said: “I find it unfair that a lot of gay people have to pay for it – having a baby is a human right.”
