Courtney Jacques and her partner, Kevin, recently marked a devastating anniversary. Last year, they lost their baby daughter, Dahla, when she was born at 22 weeks. Now, not long after what would have been her first birthday, they are trying for a baby again.
Dahla was conceived by IVF. Courtney, 25, had cancer as a baby, leaving her with only one fallopian tube and one ovary. Their first attempt was unsuccessful, but the second time round, things went more smoothly and Courtney got pregnant. Everything was going to plan until at 22 weeks, her waters broke.
“We went to the hospital but they told me even if she was born alive, they wouldn’t be able to help her as it was too early,” says Courtney, 25. “I was desperately trying not to go into labour, I couldn’t believe they wouldn’t even try to save her.”
Dahla was born two days later after an incredibly traumatic birth experience. She was placed on her mother’s chest for her final moments.
“She was absolutely perfect with the cutest button nose,” says Courtney. “As a mother you just want to help your child but I felt so helpless. I couldn’t believe what had happened after everything we’d been through.”
With one NHS-funded round of IVF left, the couple tried again in May this year but were unsuccessful. Now they are looking to try again – but they’ll have to fund it themselves. The couple are asking friends, family and strangers to support them, and have created a fundraising campaign with a target of £3,500 – and so far they have raised just over £2,000.
“It was hard for me and Kevin, we were taught growing up that if you wanted something, you should work hard, get your money and buy it yourself,” explains Courtney – whose cousin persuaded her to set up the campaign. “I’ve been gob-smacked by the response,” she adds. “People not only donating but getting in touch with their stories of IVF success, which give us hope.”
Courtney and Kevin are far from alone in using this avenue to help meet the huge costs of fertility treatment. According to data from GoFundMe, each year hundreds of fundraisers are started with IVF as the goal, with a 39 per cent increase in these appeals in the last year. July 2025, when Courtney and Kevin started theirs, saw the highest number of fundraisers launched in a single month in over two years.
The average cost of a round of IVF in the UK stands at £13,730 according to fertility insurance company, Gaia. With NHS funding for IVF being slashed across the country, it’s easy to see why people are turning to these campaigns to find support.
“It’s no wonder these GoFundMe pages are appearing because people are becoming desperate,” says Katie Rollings, founder of charity Fertility Action UK. “Rising living costs combined with declining NHS funding, long wait times for a number of gynaecological health conditions mean couples often face delays, additional expenses for medications and tests – all of which can reduce the chances of success and add stress to an already incredibly challenging journey.”
The charity is campaigning for NHS Integrated Care Boards – which decide how much IVF to fund in an area and the thresholds people need to meet – to bring their criteria in line with NICE guidelines, which recommend three funded rounds of IVF.
As it stands, there is a “postcode lottery” of funding. Those living in one area might get three funded cycles, while others in a different location only get one or even none. The first half of 2025 saw a number of areas announce plans to slash their offering. Sussex, Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire hit the headlines earlier this year, entering consultations in advance of proposals to offer just one funded IVF round, down from three.
“It looks like ICBs are using the calls for equity to bring their offering down rather than up,” says Rollings. “Meaning we could see one funded round as standard. This isn’t going to work for a lot of couples for whom three cycles is important. For the best chances of success, protocols may need to be tweaked between attempts.”
Kerry Kierans and her husband Kal found themselves at the whim of the postcode lottery after realising they would need IVF to conceive. Based in Bristol, they were only entitled to one funded round. Their first attempt was abandoned before egg collection because Kerry’s body wasn’t responding to the drugs. Their clinic kindly let them roll their funding into another attempt, this time getting one embryo, but sadly this didn’t implant.
Kerry Kierans and her husband Kal were only entitled to one funded round of IVF in their area of Bristol“The NHS funding is really unfair given that in some places people are entitled to three rounds,” says Kal, 37, a chef. “Our rounds are £10,000 a go. Last year, after being persuaded by our friends, we started fundraising – we had never considered it before but they all said they were desperate to support us.”
Setting their target at £5,000 they hit it in one day. “We got way more than we expected, it sort of went wild,” says Kal. Kerry’s mother was so moved, when she read about other campaigns “she really took it to heart and started donating to loads of people,” says Kerry.
One of the reasons NICE guidelines recommend three rounds is because IVF often fails the first time, but each time, clinics are also able to learn more about a couple and change their approach based on new information. At 37 and with a low AMH (egg count), Kerry also has endometriosis and adenomyosis – crippling diseases that she has suffered with since she was a teenager.
“Growing up I had horrendous periods, sometimes I couldn’t even stand up,” explains Kerry. “The doctor put me on the pill which masked the symptoms but when we got married and I came off the pill, my periods went back to how they used to be again – I knew something was wrong so went straight to see the doctor.”
It took a surprising amount of time to get diagnosed – finally, when she was 33, she saw an endometriosis specialist who realised what was going on. Now, with a full picture of their reproductive health, the couple’s fertility doctors have recommended a different approach to IVF with fewer drugs called natural, modified IVF – something which has been found to work for others with low AMH levels. They’ve just reactivated their campaign to see if they can gather extra support to try their new plan.
“We’ve always been very open about our journey,” says Kerry. “But I really wasn’t sure about fundraising because I didn’t like the idea of asking for money. It was amazing seeing our friends’ reaction to it the first time, they were so engaged – we set up an Instagram account to document our journey to give something back in a way.”
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Turning to fundraising platforms like GoFundMe is clearly something that works for some couples. With one in six couples impacted by infertility, many people now know someone going through IVF and it is clearly an emotive topic that encourages generosity. But should it be the case that this is people’s only option to start a family?
Carole Gilling-Smith is chief executive and medical director at The Agora, a fertility clinic in Sussex, where NHS funding for IVF dropped from three rounds to one in July. She disagrees with the rationing of NHS fertility treatment, arguing that it puts couples under huge amounts of pressure. She argues that supporting people who want to have babies, but can’t, could help the UK’s fast declining birth rate.
“I don’t understand this argument about funding IVF, it is one of the only areas of healthcare that we’re rationing yet we have a declining population,” she says. “The World Health Organisation considers infertility to be a disease, why shouldn’t it be treated?”
Like Rollings, she isn’t surprised to hear about the trend in GoFundMe pages. “Everyone is financially stressed anyway thanks to inflation, add that to the NHS funding being slashed and people just don’t think they can afford to do IVF to have a baby and that is tragic,” she says. “That’s where these fundraising campaigns are coming from.”
Courtney and Kevin’s appeal can be found here. Kerry and Kal’s appeal can be found here
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