KIWI MUM'S TEARS OF JOY 'MEET MY MIRACLE BABY!'

After a heartbreaking battle with Cushing's disease, Wellington woman Chyanne thought she'd never be a mother

- Cloe Willetts

Three years ago, when Cushing's disease sufferer Chyanne Bevan was at the peak of her illness, struggling to walk because the weight of her stomach was crushing her legs, her dream of becoming a parent felt impossible.

But thanks to life-changing surgery to remove her adrenal glands, daily medication. and the support of her fiancé Sam Evans, the excited Wellingtonian has recently celebrated her daughter Everleigh's first birthday.

"I was originally told I probably couldn't have a baby because of Cushing's, which messes up your hormones and ovulation," explains Chyanne, 27, who first spoke to Woman's Day in 2020, when she tipped the scales at 145kg despite regular exercise.

"We tried for a year and a Toffer for half, then the week we were meant to go to our first IVF appointment, I found out I was pregnant! There was a high risk I could miscarry, so it wasn't until seeing her in the 12-week scan that I realised it was really happening. I cried."

Baby Everleigh arrived on 4 April 2022, a welcome blessing for Chyanne and refrigeration technician Sam, 26, who met eight months before she was diagnosed with the debilitating illness in 2017.

For Chyanne, her Cushing's disease was caused by a benign tumour on her brain's pituitary gland, which produces cortisol. This hormone helps to regulate metabolism, blood sugar, blood pressure, immunity and stress.