A woman gave birth to her brother's baby after agreeing to be a surrogate so he could start a family. Sabreena Henderson, 29, volunteered to help sibling Shane Petrie, 32, and his husband Paul Petrie, 36.
She says she has "always felt strongly" about sexual equality - so was more than willing to help out. And, after five failed insemination attempts and a miscarriage, Sabreena gave birth to baby Tristan in September last year.
She said: "Seeing the happiness in their eyes and the smile on my brother's face made it all worth it, and if they asked me, I'd do it again in a heartbeat."
Sabreena, a property manager who is mum to four children of her own, is one of five sisters. And, after Shane came out as gay in at 16, they all agreed they would be a surrogate if they could.
Sabreena says she was then the best candidate when her brother said he wanted a child in 2020. She said: "Surrogacy is really expensive and so is adoption so when Shane and Paul were ready to be parents I was happy to help facilitate that.
"My eldest sister had already had three C-sections so she couldn't do it, and my two younger sisters were only 18 and 19 at the time. That left it between me and my other middle sister. But she'd had a terrible time through both her pregnancies."
Sabreena agreed to use Paul's sperm and her egg so both fathers would be related to the baby by blood. The trio tried their first insemination attempt in November 2020, but it didn't result in a pregnancy.
They then had two more attempts and on the third time of trying, in February 2021, Sabreena was impregnated. She carried for 13 weeks before suffering a tragic miscarriage - which left the family devastated.
Sabreena took a few months to heal both physically and emotionally. But when doctors informed her it was safe to try again in October 2021, that's what they did.
And, three months later, after a further three attempts, Sabreena fell pregnant again. She said: "When we found out I'd miscarried we were absolutely heartbroken.
"I bled so much and even needed surgery as my body wasn't naturally letting go of the pregnancy. It was awful. But it didn't put me off helping my brother and when we got the all clear from the doctor, we tried again.
"The day I found out I was pregnant again was wonderful, although we were all tentatively optimistic because of our previous experience. It was a tense nine months, but thankfully everything was fine this time around and I gave birth to Tristan on September 28 last year."
Shane and Paul have been fathers for three months and are loving every minute of parenthood. And Shane says he will forever be in debt to his younger sister - and that they now share an unbreakable bond like no other.
Shane, a drug and alcohol recovery worker said: “One of the first things my husband and I ever discussed when we met was we both wanted children. We wanted a family, but weren’t sure how we would be able to make that a reality.
"When my sister came to us and asked to help it was life changing. It was the most selfless act I’ve ever seen in my life.
"She gave us the thing that we wanted most in the world, and made our life and family complete, and asked for nothing in return."
