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More than 70 successful applicants will receive IVF (in vitro fertilisation) treatment funded by the Gingernut’s Angels foundation
Nick Mowbray and Jaimee Lupton established the fund and have donated $500,000 towards it
The couple is also exploring the option of starting a not-for-profit fertility clinic in New Zealand
It doesn’t take long for the tears to come. Aucklander Louise Peel starts off brightly enough, recounting her fertility story – the struggle to fall pregnant, the miscarriages, and the horror of losing an unborn baby at 24 weeks.
It was March 2021 when Peel, 38, and her fiance WesleyHaggas, learned the heartbreaking news that their unborn daughter had major congenital issues affecting her heart and brain development.
Struggling to come to terms with the news, Peel went through endless tests, scans and specialist opinions, searching for some hope. In the end their baby Ruby was stillborn at 24 weeks, a loss that is still as raw today as it was three and a half years ago.
Louise Peel, pictured with her fiance Wesley Haggas, lost a baby at 24 weeks' gestation in 2021 and has struggled to conceive since then.
In March 2022, a year after her loss, Peel saw a black-and-white photo on Instagram that broke her heart: a tiny baby’s hand clasped around an adult finger, an image that accompanied the news that Nick Mowbray and Jaimee Lupton’s baby daughter had been stillborn at 24 weeks.
Peel stared at the photo, so similar to ones taken of Ruby by Heartfelt, a voluntary organisation of professional photographers who capture images of stillborn or seriously ill children for their grieving parents.
“Instantly when I saw it, I knew straight away.”
The tiny hand of 'Gingernut' - Jaimee Lupton and Nick Mowbray's baby daughter stillborn at 24 weeks in March 2022.
The first anniversary of her own loss was coming up, the feelings still raw. Peel sobs as she remembers that first interaction with Lupton, connecting through social media to share her story and to tell Lupton that the pain of loss would never completely heal but that life would get better. And that there was always hope.
“I just felt I needed to reach out to Jaimee even though I am a complete stranger, just to let her know she will be okay [even though] it doesn’t feel like it right now.”
The two women kept in touch and when Lupton announced her pregnancy in 2023, Peel was among the first to congratulate her. By that stage Peel had suffered two more miscarriages and told Lupton she had almost given up hope of becoming a mum, given the cost of IVF – between $12,000 and $18,000 a cycle depending on the treatment.
It was that news that led Lupton and Mowbray to think about helping others who desperately wanted to have children but could not afford the treatment needed.
They had nicknamed their unborn baby Gingernut, as a nod to Mowbray’s ginger hair, and because Lupton ate her way through packets of ginger biscuits to combat morning sickness. They decided to launch a foundation, Gingernut’s Angels, in their daughter’s memory, donating $500,000 to the foundation and raising another $181,000 through donations.
Lupton approached New Zealand’s three fertility clinics, Fertility Associates, Repromed and the Government-funded Te Whatu Ora provider Fertility Plus, which agreed to support the foundation by giving a 20% discount for treatment and drugs. That discount and a grant up to $10,000 for each applicant means most IVF rounds will either be free or cost a small amount.
Earlier this year Lupton gave birth to a daughter, Noa, after four years of heartbreak – a miscarriage, a stillbirth and failed IVF embryo transfers. She’s acutely aware that without the ability to pay for IVF, it is unlikely that the birth of Noa would have been possible.
“There is nothing more special than having a baby. Noa has completely changed our lives, we love her so much.”
Jaimee Lupton with her baby daughter Noa.
She wants Noa to have a brother or sister in the future but also wants to help others through Gingernut’s Angels.
“I go to sleep thinking about it, I wake up thinking about it. If we’re in the position to help we should. Nick and I are both super passionate about it.”
They’re even exploring the possibility of establishing a not-for-profit IVF clinic to help those who don’t qualify for public funding and can’t afford the full cost of private treatment.
“If there is one thing about Nick he does nothing by halves and this is no different,” Lupton says. “We both really want to help as many families as we can in our lifetime.”
Of the three fertility clinics in New Zealand. Te Whatu Ora’s Fertility Plus is the only not-for-profit. It treats about 500 patients a year but some of those pay privately. The waitlist for the first consultation is between 12 and 18 months, and there is a range of criteria for people before being accepted for public funding. Those that do are eligible for up to two rounds of IVF.
Repromed would not release its treatment figures but Fertility Associates says it has produced 29,000 babies in its 36-year history. Last year it treated 10,000 couples and individuals for a range of fertility issues. Success rates vary widely, depending on the clinic and the age of the woman. Over the age of 40, success rates drop markedly.
A fresh Gingernut’s Angels fundraising push is planned for next year, and Rascals nappies - a Zuru Group product – is donating $1 for every pack sold, up to $100,000.
Meanwhile, the 72 successful applicants – out of more than 400 – will go through IVF treatment in the coming weeks and months. They were chosen by a panel Lupton calls Guardian Angels including Repromed’s medical director Dr Devashana Gupta, and former chair and group medical director of Fertility Associates, Dr Mary Birdsall.
One of the first couples to undergo an IVF round are Brittany and Mathew Meyer of Hawke’s Bay.
Mathew Meyer has two children by a previous relationship and Brittany, 35, desperately wanted a baby of her own. A vasectomy reversal operation was unsuccessful and the couple were told IVF was their only option.
They scraped together enough money to do an IVF round in early 2023.
‘I need to be a mum’
“We were so lucky, on the first round we got our little boy but sadly ... sorry if I cry ... it’s been a year now,” Brittany Meyer sobs.
Heartbreakingly, their baby Baxter was stillborn at full term. Meyer says her pre-eclampsia condition went undiagnosed, causing her baby to die close to his due date.
Brittany Meyer's baby son Baxter was stillborn after her pre-eclampsia went undiagnosed.
The couple had one embryo left from the initial IVF but Meyer miscarried in March this year, destroying their hopes of becoming parents together.
Meyer followed Lupton on social media, knew about the loss of Gingernut and then read about Gingernut’s Angels. Knowing they would never be able to afford the $12,000 needed for another IVF round, the Meyers applied to the foundation. “We were waiting and waiting, and then we got the email.”
She feels lucky, she says. “I’m going to cry again. I’m really, really grateful.”
Earlier this month Meyer had the first embryo implanted from the IVF funded by Gingernut’s Angels and is now waiting to hear if the transfer has been successful. If it’s not, the couple have two “A grade” frozen embryos which will give them two more chances.
Mathew and Brittany Meyer's baby son Baxter was stillborn at 40 weeks.
Peel and Haggas plan to do an IVF round in January after two years of setbacks and delays, including extensive genetic testing, acupuncture, unsuccessful artificial insemination treatment, two miscarriages and an issue Peel had with an over-active thyroid which put treatment on hold.
Lupton has offered to help them with IVF costs, a gesture Peel describes as “incredible”.
“That in itself makes you feel so lucky in a very unlucky situation,” she says. “When you’ve been so close to being a mother and then it’s just taken from you ... I need to be a mum. It’s not just that I want to be, I need to be a mum.”
Jane Phare is a senior Auckland-based business, features and investigations journalist, former assistant editor of NZ Herald and former editor of the Weekend Herald and Viva.
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