Brave young Milton Keynes woman launches £60k legal battle to fight for the right to use her dead fiance's sperm

A brave young woman is fighting through the High Court for the right to become pregnant with her fiance's sperm.

And she has launched a special fundraising page appealing for people to help her raise tens of thousands of fees in legal fees she needs to launch the action.

Ellie Horne, 22, lost her partner Myles to pneumonia four months ago, following his lengthy battle against leukemia.

The pair had been together for three years and were planning to get married. Because the cancer treatment had rendered Myles infertile, they had already started the IVF process to have a baby.

"Before Myles started his treatment, he was asked if we wanted some of his semen to be frozen and stored in case he ever wanted to start a family," said Ellie.

"He said yes, of course. Having children together was something we'd always planned and dreamed of. So there are nine vials in storage with the NHS, waiting to be used. I'd started the initial consultations with an IVF clinic and the plan was for me to get pregnant as soon as possible."

Myles' health declined rapidly last year, following a series of infections. But his death last September was still sudden and unexpected, said Ellie, who has taken Myles' surname.

"Sadly, we didn't have time to get married," she said. "The Covid pandemic meant planning a wedding was just too difficult."

Though the couple did not realise it at the time, crucially none of the doctors or officials mentioned Myle's frozen semen before he died.

"As the law stands, he needed to sign a consent form for me to use his sperm after he passed away. Nobody told us this. We had no idea. Had we known, he would most definitely have signed," said Ellie.

"We'd talked so much about the baby we wanted to have. If it was a boy we planned to call him Mylo, after Myles. If it's a girl we wanted to call her Nora, after my nan.

"We talked about how the child would be into Star Wars and geeky things, just like their dad....Death was something that was never anticipated."

The lack of consent means Ellie has no legal right to use the frozen semen and undergo IVF. And to win that right through the courts will cost her up to £60,000 in legal fees.

"I am now facing a very long and costly court case to win legality over Myles’ stored semen, something that should be rightly mine," she said.

"Not only have I lost the love of my life; the man who I built a life with, planned to marry and carry his children, I am at the brink of losing the chance to ever even have our children."

Ellie is supported by Myles' family as well as her own in her wish to carry his baby. She is also able to support herself and the child.

"We all feel it would be a little bit of Myles that we still have. The child would be loved and cherished," she said.

Lawyers have said Ellie has a 50/50 chance of winning her case - but they have warned it will cost up to £60,000 either way. She has ploughed all her money into lawyers' fees so far and now needs to raise more as soon as possible.

"I am desperately in need of raising the funds now, at this point. I have so far used all of our savings that Myles had left to me, the money we had aside to build our future with, to use for our children."

So far, just over £400 of the £50,000 target has been raised by the gofundme page.

Ellie said: "Thank you to everyone who has been sharing and donating. You will never know how much it means to us. These past few days I have been completely and solely occupied with gathering up every single piece of evidence to show how much me and Myles wanted children, and how we were already involved in the early stages of IVF.

"To every person who knew us personally, you will know that this was our one wish."