Couple’s ‘miracle baby’ conceived thanks to sperm donation just one hour before dad’s first chemoThis Lincoln mother revealed how her partner was diagnosed with stage 4 bile duct cancer, but she refused to let the condition stop them having a baby.Lois Rose’s partner, Liam Bradley, 38, donated his sperm for IVF just one hour before beginning his first chemotherapy treatment – and now the couple are parents to their ‘miracle baby’ Birdie.Former supermarket manager Liam was ‘the fittest’ he had ever been when he was playing golf with friends in March 2025 but started to notice flu-like symptoms.They noticed Liam’s eyeballs had a ‘yellow tinge’ so he visited Lincoln County Hospital’s A&E.Liam’s bile duct was investigated using a CT scan, which revealed a stricture, and an MRI in April, which showed stage 4 cholangiocarcinoma, commonly called bile duct cancer, with 12 tumours that had spread to his liver.

The couple had to wait six weeks for chemotherapy – but they said this ended up being ‘a blessing in disguise’ as it gave Liam enough time to ‘squeeze in’ a sperm donation on the very morning of his first treatment for 30-year-old Lois’s IVF.The pair said they were ‘amazed’ to hear in October that this first and only donation had been successful and Lois was pregnant with Liam’s baby..“She sleeps six to seven hours at night, she’s breastfed perfectly from the beginning and she’s really content.”Lois met Liam at the gym in December 2024, just four months before Liam was diagnosed with cancer.“If I didn’t have Lois and Birdie, I think cancer would control my life,” Liam told PA Real Life.“It would dictate what I do hour by hour, minute by minute and I’d constantly be thinking about it.“But I’ve got so many happy distractions in my life that I can take control back.”