Meet My Mr Right

When I couldn’t find a man, two strangers helped me have a baby

By Gail Russell, 45, from Colchester, Essex

- Rachel Tompkins, Claire Dunwell

When I was in my 20s, I didn’t worry about relationships and children.

I’ll do it when the time’s right, I thought.

I was too busy focusing on my career as a graphic designer and having fun.

Only, when I hit my 30s, my mates started settling down and having babies.

Watching them with their little ones made me feel broody. 

When will it be my turn? I’d ask myself.

I fell in love a couple of times. But when the relationships didn’t work out, I was back to square one. I started to lose hope. 

I’m never going to find my Mr Right, I thought.

Then, in 2005, I was tasked at work with designing stuff for a fertility clinic called the London Women’s Clinic.

I learnt all the ins and outs about fertility, including that my chances of getting pregnant rapidly decreased the older I got!

And also that you could get pregnant using donor sperm.

I could have a baby without a man, I thought.

I knew the chances of me meeting a man to settle down with were getting slimmer.

If I wanted a baby, I needed to get on with it.

So, without telling anyone, I began choosing a sperm donor from a sperm bank.

I selected characteristics similar to mine. 

Blue eyes, petite build. 

Then, in January 2008, aged 34, I secretly paid £1,200 for an IUI procedure to insert donor sperm into my uterus.

I was excited, hopeful. I even had the name Lewis in mind if it was a boy. 

Sadly, it failed.