Tag: egg donor

Getting closer…

Hey,

This week has been a great week, we are getting much closer to our dream, thank you our egg donor angel, we love you but not just for this gift but because you are the person you are no matter what happens xox 

I have been busy with work, trying to get people to attend the Cystic Fibrosis Australia and Bipolar Education Foundation Gala event on 25th June, it’s always hard to get people to help charities especially when they are inundated with requests on a daily/weekly basis.  Such wonderful causes and they don’t get as much attention and support as they deserve and compared to other well-known charities.  And working on 65 Roses Day for PGPR and Cystic Fibrosis Australia is always a wonderful experience, this is my third year working on this campaign and I just love helping this wonderful cause.  Did you know that there are only 40 people over 40 years of age alive with Cystic Fibrosis?  The average life expectancy is 37 years of age which has increased significantly over the past 10 years thanks to donations, awareness, research and the dedication of the people who live with Cystic Fibrosis whether it is the person, the family, the friends or the people who work towards the goal of finding a cure.

But in-between this and other projects, I decided it was time to send out my press release to the media for the egg donor angels website.  Today it went to over 1500 national print, magazine, TV and Radio media and I hope that this helps get the word out there that there is a need for not only awareness for infertility and egg, embryo and sperm donation but also a shortage of people for this.

I came up with the concept of the website in November last year so I created my Facebook and Twitter pages then and then finally launched the website over the Easter break this year.  

Since the launch of my website there have been lots of support groups and websites popping up which is great news for spreading the word on the growing issue of infertility, the more we can get this message out there and help couples achieve their dream of having a family, the better. 

I am soooo excited that we are sooo very close… though I have a decision to make about timing of the cycle, of course I want it to happen now but we also have had a 6 week holiday planned since we were away last year…. my body and mind feel like they need the planned break to swim, relax, bush walk and just enjoy after a busy and emotional year.  Should we make our holiday the egg donor cycle and spend time around the house doing work or should we go away, come back refreshed to do the cycle in August??   The dilemma is amazing and each time I think about it, I change my decision. We have decided to think it over this long weekend, of course I have debated it in my head over and over and discussed it somewhat with Shane in between his going to work and sleeping!  I hear my best friend and well she’s really a sister to me saying do it.. spent many many years trying to conceive and lost many babies and now has two wonderful boys to a sperm donor, so she knows how it feels.  Then I hear another best friend and sister to me, saying to do what’s right, and then another I think I need to talk to, she is one of my rocks and an amazing person, I love all my wonderful friends and couldn’t have gotten through the past ten years without your love, support and guidance, thank you xox

Of course we only have a week to decide before our leave starts and I have soooo much to do… I think it’s time for a cuppa, check the fire as it’s fwweeeeezzing here and do some more work and maybe think about it later when I take the doggie for a walk and run..

Will keep you updated and let you know of my decision

Dianne xox

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Support groups on the web and FB

It’s fantastic and interesting that there are new Facebook and websites popping up supporting infertility and egg donors…the more help there is to support infertility and especially egg donation in Australia, hopefully the more dreams we can fulfill.

I have had some feedback on my site with people saying that it’s expensive and I guess questioning why they would pay to look for an egg donor when they can post an ad on forums like bub hub and essential baby and on Facebook groups and pages.

When I came up with this website idea over six months ago, I had been travelling my own journey for several years and had tried most ways to find an egg donor and yes that included all of the above and more.

The reality of finding an egg donor is that it’s extremely difficult.  There are lots of wonderful women out there that offer and think they can do it but when the reality of it all sets in, a high percentage pull out, understandably.  There are lots of women that are happy to donate but finding them and making them aware is the hard part. 

When I launched the Facebook page, I paid hundreds and hundreds of dollars to see if I could find potential egg donors and I did, I then spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars to firstly set up this website and most importantly again spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars to source potential egg donors to come to this site.  I did this over a 5 day period and had over 300 hits to the website of potential egg donors, what a wonderful result!

I know that potential egg donors will possibly find other sites where couples are advertising for their egg donor angel but they are only tapping into a % of the population and in a certain period of time. 

I have over 20 years of marketing and PR experience and now love using these skills to help others achieve their dream of a family but like most things there’s a dollar cost.  If you look in the “Child” magazine there are lots of paid advertisements for egg donors, or in your local paper or in the larger newspapers… I am offering an alternative to this but with the promise that the money goes into targeted advertising to find you that Egg Donor Angel.

Good luck and I hope you find your Egg Donor Angel no matter what xox

So how did our journey start…

Evening…..

After a busy few weeks I am taking some time to write about our journey as promised.  As its bbbbrrrr very cold outside, the fire is roaring, the dog is asleep beside me, the cat is meowing at me (yes she’s been fed!) and Shane is at work…

I was married for many years to someone who I thought I was in love with….unfortunately he wasn’t the person I thought he was, and after finding about the lying and cheating, I broke free and started my life again.

The hardest part was that I knew I wanted a family and knew time was running out for me….you can’t really say on the first, second or third date… so…how about a family…. like now!

In looking for a housemate as I had to pay the mortgage and credit card debt on my own, I met this wonderful man through a friend that he worked with.  I can still picture him walking up the path to my front door for the first time and thinking to myself “this guy seems really nice and sweet”.  How right I was!

However it took us a month or so to talk again after one of my other housemates was moving out and suggested I ring him and see if he still needed somewhere.. so I did, he had a place but from that call we had our first date and we are still together six years later.

The saddest and hardest part for us as a couple was to overcome our fears and trust issues.  My distrust due to my ex’s lying and cheating.. his due to his ex taking his daughter from him at the age of two for no reason other than spite.  Stephanie is now 15 years old (about to turn 16).  He has paid child support since and spent years and thousands of dollars trying to find her.  Last year thanks to the internet, we found her and he got to speak to Stephanie.  Sadly she has been “brainwashed” by her mother and wants nothing to do with her father but thanked him for the spending money (child support).  The only reason the mother; Marie gave as to why she kept their daughter away from her father was that his mother had fed her cold vegetables and something about cold water.  If you knew his Mum you would know this would not be true and I would ask anyone, really is that a good enough reason to keep your child away from their father??

So Shane had major trust issues, understandably.  He wanted a family but was terrified that it would happen again.  So while I wanted children, he didn’t and so years went by until I finally went to an IVF clinic and got myself checked out.  The report was ok, so I waited a bit longer… and a bit longer as he just wasn’t ready.. then I finally said now!  Sadly for us, when I went back to the IVF clinic, the results were not good, it’s amazing how quickly things can change.  I only did SIUI’s, I never had enough follies (potential eggs) for IVF or so the clinic said.  I was too much of a risk to their statistics to try to use the one or two follies/eggs.  We went to another clinic and they were wonderful. They said lets just try that one follie/egg and see what happens but then it was well and truly too late! 

All along ” you need an egg donor” had been suggested to me, it takes a while to come to terms with this and I wanted to keep trying.  So I started the process of finding our egg donor angel but at the same time kept trying naturally and through the IVF clinic.

We then had a wonderful egg donor angel offer but she had to pull out due to health concerns…we had advertised originally in the local paper, on forums and on social media sites but no one was suitable.  There were a number of wonderful offers but for various reasons including health they were not suitable.

It was from that, that I realised that it’s really really hard to find that egg donor angel and from that came this website. 

As soon as I thought about this concept, I was ecstatic and started researching it and getting quotes to make it happen.  almost six months later, it’s finally here and I hope that it will help other couples find their egg donor angel as we now have, more to come on this….

That’s our story, and I can’t wait to share this journey with you. 

Thanks for reading and I look forward to helping you find your egg donor angel and for all of us to share our journeys together.

Take care Dianne xo