Couple seek assistance to have baby

Nick and Nicola Chisholm, in Dunedin yesterday, are working towards having a baby. Photo by Peter...
Nick and Nicola Chisholm, in Dunedin yesterday, are working towards having a baby. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
Dunedin man Nick Chisholm is working on adding fatherhood to his long list of personal achievements.

Fifteen years ago, Mr Chisholm (42) had a stroke during a rugby game, leaving him with locked-in syndrome and limiting his body movement.

After the stroke, he married Nicola (nee Kolb) in 2013 and has been New Zealand wheelchair bodybuilding champion four times.

Now, the couple have decided they want to have a baby.

Mrs Chisholm (43) said an ectopic pregnancy and a miscarriage had hindered the couple's quest to have a child.

"It just doesn't seem to be going our way,'' she said yesterday.

A fertility specialist last month told the couple the best path to parenthood was to use an egg donor.

The specialist recommended the San Diego Fertility Clinic, which could guarantee a baby using Mr Chisholm's sperm with a donated egg.

"They freeze several embryos and if you fall pregnant and miscarry, you go back and they don't charge you [for another try],'' Mrs Chisholm said.

The clinic's clients had an 80% success rate first time, she said.

In New Zealand, the success rate was between 20% and 30% and the couple would have to wait two years for an egg donor, she said.

The couple had saved $12,000 for IVF treatment but the specialist gave the couple a 7% chance of the treatment working using Mrs Chisholm's egg.

"We are just too old,'' Mr Chisholm joked with his wife yesterday, communicating via his message board.

The couple, with the encouragement of family, started the Givealittle page, Project Baby Chisholm on January 28 with the aim to raise $70,000 to get to the clinic.

Yesterday, about $4500 had been raised.

"I've been blown away by the support,'' Mr Chisholm said.

Donations can ge given at www.givealittle.co.nz/cause/projectbabychisholm/

shawn.mcavinue@odt.co.nz

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