A Yorkshire couple who scooped a £1million lottery windfall are thrilled after they were able to help both their daughters have children through I.V.F. When Ruth and Mark Chalmers won on the EuroMillions Raffle in February 2018, their thoughts turned to how they could help their daughters Natalie and Leanne each overcome their sᴛʀᴜɢɢʟᴇs with the ᴄᴏɴᴅɪᴛɪᴏɴ ᴘᴏʟʏᴄʏsᴛɪᴄ ᴏᴠᴀʀʏ sʏɴᴅʀᴏᴍᴇ (P.C.O.S).
Chalmers, 60, said he and his wife, 61, had planned to use a lump sum he received when he took early retirement to try to fund Natalie’s I.V.F but “when we won the lottery it just made it so much easier. The lottery is a fantasy that became reality for us,” Chalmers said. He added: “It’s given us a lot of security and a lot of pleasure – most over those two boys.” Chalmers said he had nothing but praise for the I.V.F services his daughters used.
Now the couple from Halifax, West Yorkshire, are celebrating life as grandparents as they spend time with Natalie’s son Koby, now three, and Leanne’s son Brogen, 19 months. Chalmers said:” Natalie had gone through it for quite a number of years of trying to get ᴘʀᴇɢɴᴀɴᴛ and different things going on with her medical conditions. At one stage, she rang me in floods of tears saying ‘they want to take my ᴡᴏᴍʙ out’ and she thought that was the absolute end. But luckily, she persevered, she saw some other doctors, and we didn’t need to go down that route. And then we looked at going down the I.V.F route.”
Natalie, 33, explained how she had been through years of ᴏᴘᴇʀᴀᴛɪᴏɴs and tests to try to help her ᴄᴏɴᴄᴇɪᴠᴇ despite having P.C.O.S, but was told it was almost impossible to get ᴘʀᴇɢɴᴀɴᴛ conventionally. She said that when her mother and father told her about the lottery win making the I.V.F funding a lot more realistic, she felt ‘happy, excited, nervous’. Natalie said: “I just can’t thank them enough for it. They have given me Koby, really. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them.”
