Being A Surrogate Saved My Life!

Rebecca didn’t hesitate to become a surrogate for her aussie aunt – but she never expected this...

- Karen Pasquali Jones

When Rebecca Davidson overheard her aunt saying she feared she’d never fulfil her dream of becoming a mum, she was determined to help.

But she had no idea that deciding to become a surrogate for Geelong-based Paula, 48, would not only give her aunt the baby she’d longed for but would also end up saving her own life.

That’s because surgeons carrying out an emergency caesarean to deliver baby Maxwell discovered an apple-sized tumour, which had stopped him being born naturally.

A biopsy revealed Rebecca, 26, had cervical cancer, which would have most certainly killed her if it hadn’t been detected then.

‘At the time I was distraught and kept thinking: “Why me?”’ says Rebecca, who is now undergoing chemotherapy and daily radiation. ‘But when my consultant said that if they hadn’t discovered the tumour during the C-section they would be talking to me about palliative care, I realised I was lucky.

‘If I hadn’t decided to be a surrogate for Aunt Paula, I wouldn’t have found out I had cancer until it was too late.’

Rebecca, who lives in Northern Ireland, has always been close to her mum’s sister, Paula, who migrated to Australia when she was 18.

‘She married my uncle, who is Australian, and moved to Geelong,’ she explains. ‘I went over for holidays and we spoke all the time. The distance didn’t come between us – we are a close family, and I would do anything for her.’

So when Rebecca overheard her aunt voicing fears that time was running out for her to have a child, she offered to help.

‘She didn’t ask me to be her surrogate,’ Rebecca says. ‘I overheard her talking at my daughter Daliah’s christening.