Image courtesy of: Paul Swiech
A cancer diagnosis is a devastating time for anyone, and when Allie Ruff was 25 years old she was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. At that time, her and her husband had only been married for a little over a year, and they thought that their dreams of having a family were over.
However, thanks to fertility rescue technology at Sher Fertility’s Central Illinois clinic in Peoria, they were able to create embryos with Allie’s eggs and her husband, Dave’s, sperm. Of the egg retrieval process, Allie said:
“That was a scary time,” Allie admitted. “The cancer was hormone-driven. So was I fueling the cancer (by taking the medicine)?”
Following chemotherapy, Allie was cancer free, but unable to carry a child since her cancer was hormone driven and could easily come back. So, the Ruff’s looked into Surrogacy and found that they would not be able to afford it, which is where Allie’s work friend, Josie Wiles, came in. Josie offered to be the Ruff’s Surrogate for free and on August 26, 2016 Josie gave birth to Ava Jo Ruff.
Josie Wiles was the answer to the Ruff’s prayers and helped them to become the family they had always wished for.
To learn more about the Ruff’s story read the entire article in the Herald.