WILTSHIRE TIMES EXCLUSIVE: THE brave woman at the centre of a legal battle to save her unborn children has vowed she will not give up on her babies.
Natallie Evans, 32, received the heartbreaking news on Friday that her groundbreaking attempt to save the six frozen embryos, that are her only chance to have a child of her own, had failed to sway appeal court judges.
She is meeting with lawyers today and is determined to take her fight all the way to the House of Lords and even on to the European Court.
She said: "I just can't give up because I can see a future out there with my children. I will fight right through to the end.
"Having a child would complete my life. It is like a piece of a jigsaw that is missing and until that jigsaw is complete my life never will be.
"I am fighting some very big people but I have to do it because I am my babies' voice and I wouldn't be a very good parent if I gave up on them now."
The embryos, which are being stored at a Bath fertility clinic, were created in 2001 when ovarian cancer robbed the young woman of her chance to have a child naturally.
But six months later her fianc, Howard Johnston, walked out on their relationship, withdrawing his consent for the embryos to be used and leaving Miss Evans broken-hearted.
She said: "I had just been through such a traumatic time. I had cancer, I had my ovaries removed, I had been through IVF, which was painful and stressful, and now this. I was absolutely devastated."
She launched a legal battle to prevent the destruction of the embryos, which went to the High Court in October last year, but Lord Justice Wall found in favour of Mr Johnston and ordered the embryos to be destroyed.
On Friday the Court of Appeal upheld this verdict and Miss Evans, of Melksham, now has 28 days to consider whether she will take her case to the House of Lords and beyond.
The young woman, who is studying to become an accountant to build a good future for the family she hopes to have, does not think of the embryos as embryos but as her babies and said she will do anything she can to save them.
She said: "I think about how many children I would like to have and I picture their little faces and wonder if they will look like me.
"I have been thinking of names to signify how much they are wanted and how much they would mean to me, like Will and Hope.
"If I go to Europe and they say no at least I would have tried everything I could. I would know that I had fought right through to the very end for them."
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