MUM'S FIGHT: I BEAT DEATH…TO HAVE A BABY!

CUTTINGEDGE OVARY GRAFTING TECHNOLOGY HELPED GISELLE ACHIEVE HER DREAM TO BE A MUM

- Cindy Lever

When Giselle Tadros gets a quiet moment, she loves to show her son, Charbel, a picture of him as a tiny embryo. And when he’s old enough, she can’t wait to share the miraculous story of his conception.

At just 21, Giselle, from Sydney, NSW, was diagnosed with stage-four Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Fearing treatment would prevent her from having a family, she froze her eggs plus tissue from her ovaries.

Six years later, she had the ovarian tissue grafted onto her abdomen wall – resulting in her bouncing baby boy.

“I look at him and think how blessed I am,” Giselle, now 33, tells New Idea.

When she was diagnosed with cancer at such a young age, Giselle feared her chances were dashed.

“I had to start intensive chemotherapy and docs told me my fertility could be affected. They said there was an option to take out my ovarian tissue and eggs and preserve them.”

Agreeing to the experimental procedure, medics removed a third of Giselle’s ovarian tissue before starting chemotherapy.

At 22, she had a stem cell transplant and results appeared positive, but the joy was short-lived when a few months later, Giselle felt a new lump on her neck.