When Rachel Rigby’s husband told her he no longer wanted children, she decided to take her fate into her own hands…
When Rachel held baby Mia* , in her arms for the first time, it was a particularly poignant moment. She went from believing she had missed her chance of becoming a mum to meeting a man – while backpacking – who agreed to be her sperm donor.
Rachel, 52, says, “I’d always wanted children, so when my marriage broke down when I was 41, I was convinced I had missed my chance. But while backpacking, my dreams came true when I met a man who wanted to become a father and offered me his sperm. I’d gone for an adventure – and ended up with my daughter, Mia! I feel so thankful.”
DIVORCED
When Rachel started dating the man who would eventually become her husband, they had the kids conversation very early on, and both saw children in their future. Two years after they started dating, in 2010, they got married.
Aged 39, Rachel was ready to start trying, but her husband always had an excuse why they couldn’t. Rachel explains, “I had always wanted children and when lots of my friends – who had married the same year I had – started announcing their pregnancies, I couldn’t be happy for them. Then after two years of marriage, my husband told me he definitely didn’t want kids. I was devastated.”
Knowing that she couldn’t imagine growing old without having a child, Rachel left her husband. She thought travelling would help her get through her divorce and in 2012, she quit her job, bought a backpack and travelled to South America for a nine-month trip.
She says, “After a couple of months abroad, I took a tour to Chapada Diamantina, a nature park in Brazil and I became friends with a Brazilian guy called Geo in my hiking group. I told him my story, and he said he was going through a break-up, and had always wanted a baby. We came up with this crazy idea he could donate his sperm and be my child’s father!”
JOURNEY
Rachel returned home to London, and stayed in touch with Geo, then 29. Rachel was granted a divorce from her husband in 2014, and three years later, Geo was still keen to father a child with Rachel and she started her IVF journey.
She says, “I couldn’t believe it was happening! A conversation we’d had in the mountains was now turning into reality.
“Having IVF in Prague was cheaper, so I travelled to an IVF clinic over there. By that point I was 46, and my doctor advised me I had a better chance of conceiving if I used a donor egg, so that’s what I did.”
Geo travelled to Prague to give his sperm, which was mixed with a donor egg to create an embryo. Rachel didn’t want to confuse her future child so she was happy that the egg dono
