Breaking News (Sharing my journey... so far)

In the late summer of 2020, I received a surprising message from David. BBC Wales had been in contact through Dad.Be and wanted to speak to me about my surrogacy journey with the intention of including my story amongst those of other single fathers. The show in question was ‘Wales Live’, a current affairs and politics show which was looking to air a documentary piece about single fathers through choice, who had chosen to become parents through adoption, fostering and surrogacy. After speaking to Lucy Ballinger, a member of the production team, it was clear that my surrogacy journey was probably not as advanced enough at this point in time to warrant coverage. However, she was very interested in telling my story in some shape or form, if not now, but at some point down the line. She asked me to document my journey as it progressed, and so I started to film key moments in my journey as they took place. This began with filming my trips to London for blood tests and treatments, to the news that an egg donor had been found which lead to embryo creation in January.

Earlier this year, having sent several pieces of footage on to the BBC, Lucy made contact once again and said she thought the time was now right to tell my story. She forwarded my details to Alex Jennings, a senior reporter at the BBC, who contacted me to discuss the story they would like to tell. Soon after, we met at a local park in Newport where I was interviewed and filmed (with Tor) telling my story of my surrogacy adventure so far. Alex and her cameraman, Jody, were incredibly professional throughout and were able to put my nerves at ease from the start.

On Wednesday 24th of February 2021, a preview of the interview was featured on the Breakfast segments on BBC One Wales and was broadcast in full on “Wales Live” that evening. The interview is currently available on the BBC iPlayer and can be found at the link below. Time Index: 12:23

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000spq3/bbc-wales-live-24022021

BBC Wales also carried the news feature on their Facebook and Instagram accounts.

During the day I received a message from Anna Lewis, a reporter for Wales Online, who also wanted to feature my story on their relevant media outlets. A photographer came out that evening to take a few publicity shots, and that evening, my story was featured on the Wales Online website under the headline "I'm spending tens of thousand of pounds so I can be a single dad". A phrase in which, whilst factually correct, never left my mouth during my interview. I was taken aback by this quite sensational headline and therefore a little nervous to read the article. However, I was pleasantly surprised that the article told my story sympathetically and factually.

This article can be read at the following link:

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/single-father-ivf-surrogacy-uk-19907027

This Article was also replicated in both the South Wales Echo and the Western Mail.

Until Next time, Keeping the Dad Dream alive!

Read more from my Dad.Be blog here

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