Jaimee Lupton has been open about struggling with fertility. Now she wants to help others. Photo / Dean Purcell
Jaimee Lupton has been open about struggling with fertility. Now she wants to help others. Photo / Dean Purcell
Warning: This article discusses miscarriage and stillbirth.
Announcing the launch of her initiative Gingernut’s Angels, Kiwi entrepreneur and Monday Haircare co-founder Jaimee Lupton will honour her late daughter’s memory with an angel fund starting at $500,000. As she and partner Nick Mowbray prepare for the birth of their next child,Lupton tells Spy why they chose this time to launch their initiative.
Called Gingernut’s Angels, the deeply personal project will help fund the IVF journeys of other couples. Gingernut is the name the pair gave their baby, who was stillborn at 24 weeks.
Announced this week, with a website soon to launch, she and Mowbray have personally pledged $500,000 to launch the initiative.
“This is something I always knew I wanted to set up when the time was right — and as I get ready to welcome my second baby, that time is now,” Lupton tells Spy. “I’ve been very open with our fertility struggles, because knowing it might help others (even one person) makes it worthwhile.”
Jaimee Lupton is expecting her baby daughter soon.
This week, business bible Forbes celebrated Lupton’s business Monday Haircare for making one of the world’s most recognisable shampoo and conditioner bottles, and the company being on track to deliver $300 million in retail sales this year.
Lupton, 31, plans to grow the business, but her heart and focus right now are squarely on giving Gingernut’s Angels the launch it deserves, while welcoming their new baby.
“Our daughter Gingernut was born perfect but still at 24 weeks, and ever since this moment I have been on a gut-wrenching IVF journey,” she says, and the couple have been vocal about the challenging experience. “It took me two years to get pregnant with her and a further two to get pregnant again with our daughter.
“I have suffered a stillbirth, many failed transfers — both here and in the US — miscarriages and finally, hanging on to that hope has paid off,” she says, and they’re far from alone in this struggle. “One in four people will experience infertility and one in eight require some form of medical assistance to achieve a pregnancy.”
Lupton has talked to many people who are struggling — not only with fertility itself, but with finding the money for IVF treatments.
They’re not cheap; she says rounds and rounds of IVF, “multiple only if couples are lucky”, cost thousands and thousands of dollars.
Lupton says the requirements to get government funding are immense with many obstacles, and knows first hand that when you’re trying for a baby, the hope you desperately hang on to is quite literally all you can think about.
Her awareness of being in a fortunate position where, when those bills come in, they can be paid, is not taken for granted. “My heart breaks to think that finances would be the barrier to someone getting their wish for a family.”
According to Te Whatu Ora’s website, to be eligible for funding, a woman has to be under 39, both partners non-smokers, a BMI of less than 35, lives in New Zealand throughout treatment, has been trying for at least a year and has no more than one child already.
Since announcing Gingernut’s Angels this week, Lupton has been inundated with people on the other side of their IVF and fertility struggles wanting to help.
In the past few years, Lupton has privately helped three families with their IVF journey because they were close to her, or their struggle had been so similar to her own that she couldn’t bear not to help.
“With Gingernut’s Angels I’m making this commitment official: providing financial support to New Zealand families whose fertility journey is less than straightforward, through grants in our daughter’s honour,” she says. “Trust me when I say hope is not lost.”
Lupton has had hundreds of conversations with people for whom the financial burden is too much — downsizing their homes, not being able to purchase their first home, selling possessions — all in the hope of starting a family.
“The worst conversations I’ve had are with families that decide to forgo treatment altogether because they just cannot afford it.”
She and Mowbray have had many talks together about the toll IVF has on relationships, and adding the complexity of not being able to afford treatment is something that Lupton says keeps her up at night.
Jaimee Lupton and Nick Mowbray have announced their new venture, aimed to help others struggling with fertility.
“We are in the process of registering our own charitable foundation,” explains Lupton. “So in the interim are partnering with another charitable foundation to help us administer Gingernut’s Angels to ensure we get off to a running start and make an immediate impact.”
They will soon be launching a $1-for-$1 campaign in which they will match donations.
The Gingernut’s Angels website will be live imminently, and Lupton will announce a list of impressive in-the-know experts who will be part of her mission to help others and honour and keep alive the memory of their first daughter.
Also on the site will be an adviser and a group of trustees will also be released. “My mum is a social worker so helping where I can is literally in my DNA.
“We are also pretty proactive people in business — if there is a problem, we fix it.
“We leave no stone unturned when it comes to our business lives and while I spend a few months on maternity leave this year, I’m going to pour my heart and soul into fundraising and receiving pledges, so that we can grant IVF treatment to those who need it,” she says.
“My goal year one is to help at least 100 families — 100 families will be that one step closer to their miracle, which they may not have been able to do.”
Need support?
If you think you may be having a miscarriage, contact your lead maternity carer — this may be a midwife or your GP. Alternatively, call Healthline free on 0800 611 116, or visit your local Urgent Medical Centre or hospital
