After battling with leukaemia since she was four-years-old, Alice Hohenhaus, 25, had all but given up hope of ever becoming a mum.
Years of full body radiation meant she would struggle to have children due to scar tissue.
After a miscarriage two years ago, doctors told her that complications with her uterus meant she would never be able to carry a baby to full term.
Then in stepped her Ipswich mother Theresa Hohenhau, 46, who offered to be a surrogate and keep her daughter’s dreams of having a family alive.
“I thought I was too old and Alice didn’t want me to do it at first but I had already almost lost Alice twice before – she hemorrhaged during her pregnancy and it was touch and go there for a while,” Theresa tells the Daily Mail Australia.
“Making her happy and seeing her happy now is worth it.”
Theresa, who is a mother-of-five and has fostered 50 children, became pregnant almost immediately using an embryo that Alice had kept in storage.
“It was amazing and every appointment and scan from then on we went to together and cried together… we are very very close.”
Grandson Parker arrived fit and healthy on June 2, and Theresa, although more tired than during her last pregnancies, said it was the best experience of her life.
“I was worried about how I would cope when I had him but I had him naturally and afterwards they place him on my tummy and I had the first cuddle while Alice cut the cord.
“It was so beautiful. I was worried about handing him over at first and Alice was worried about how she would cope seeing me in so much pain. But we both made it through and it is a moment I will honestly cherish until I die.”
Theresa says she wouldn’t hesitate to do it all again.
“People are worried about the effort but I am in good health and it would be so lovely for Parker to have a brother or sister… I don’t think we would donate that last embryo.
“I would do anything for my kids and it truly is worth every bit of it to see Alice so happy.”
