Michelle Corley, 37, Wigan
Staring at my husband Stephen, then 36, in shock, I felt my heart start breaking.
‘I can’t believe it!’ I gasped, distressed.
It was December 2014, and genetic tests results showed that I carried the cystic fibrosis (CF) gene.
Stephen had recently found out that he was a carrier, too, after a diagnosis of CF in his family.
We’d just started trying for a baby, so I’d had tests.
‘Just in case,’ I’d shrugged.
Yet now, all our dreams of a family faded to nothing.
Despite not suffering the condition ourselves, with both of us carrying the gene, the chances that our baby would inherit CF were high.
And the condition was incurable, life-limiting. Build-up of sticky mucus in the lungs leads to breathing problems, chronic…