Leigh and Phil

“My name is Leigh; Phil and I have been married for a year and a half. Happily, we were planning our wedding in 2015 when I was diagnosed with a germ cell cancer in January 2015 and had surgery that was unable to preserve my fertility. I started chemo two weeks after surgery.

My amazing fiancé, Phil, never left my side, even though I told him he didn’t have to stay; this was not what he signed up for.”

They are now married and Leigh is now cancer free for 2.5 years.

“I was initially sad to learn that we would need an egg donor and a gestational carrier. However, I realized my husband is truly my better half and there was still the option for our children to be genetically his. The world needs more people like Phil and I will love being the mother of his children.”

They are the recipients of a $10,000 Coalition Grant to help defray the costs associated with their care.

“In November, we found an egg donor. We both agreed on the exact same donor at the same time. I couldn’t believe we decided who would make up 50% of our baby’s genetics so quickly since we have been struggling to agree on a house for a year. Our retrieval resulted in five healthy embryos, and we are now working on finding our gestational carrier. We couldn’t be more excited for all that is coming up and we can never thank you enough for the role the Coalition is playing in helping us create our family!”

Leigh and Phil are recipients of a donated IVF cycle from our Partner Practice, Northwestern Fertility and Reproductive Medicine. They are featured above with their daughter, Isabella!