About Katie
Cancer survivor
At the age of 23, I was diagnosed with cervical cancer and given just two years to live. But today I am cancer-free and the mother of a beautiful, funny, smart, and incredibly stubborn 3 year old! I am (humbly acknowledging) glad to be a bit of a medical miracle.
Beyond the portrait
As a working parent, I face challenges on a daily basis; creating a work-family-life balance, ensuring I am emotionally and physically supporting and enjoying my daughter, co-running a household, holding a demanding job that involves client and market interactions, strategic decisions, line management responsibilities and looking after my own health (and breathe!).
But, my story to motherhood was not a straight-forward one. You see I was diagnosed with cervical cancer when I was 23. Back then I thought the chance to become a parent was impossible. I was offered, and took, the option to freeze my eggs due to having treatment that would make me sterile and I also had a hysterectomy, taking away any chance I had to carry a child. But then, on top of everything, I was given the devastating news that my cancer was stage 4 and I would only have 2 years to live. I thought I would never be a Mum as I wouldn’t live to be given the chance to.
Fast forward through intense chemotherapy and radiotherapy and I managed to surpass doctors’ expectations and 2 years after my original diagnosis I was given the news that there was no evidence of cancer in my body.....news that I am glad to say has been repeated every year since!
I always knew I wanted to be a parent and surrogacy was now our only option to having a genetically related child. No lie, surrogacy for us was an emotionally challenging and difficult journey and we struggled. We wanted to wait until my health had been stable for a number of years and then it was a long and awkward process.
But then the most amazing thing happened. My wonderful school friend reached out and offered to be our surrogate. We then started our surrogacy journey with her, with the love and support of all our families, and the rest as they say is history! We were successful with our first embryo transfer and our daughter, who is genetically mine and my husbands, was born!
Embracing the power of my difference
There are very old laws surrounding surrogacy in the UK. Firstly, we were not recognised as my daughter’s legal parents when she was born or for several months after, something that affected us mentally. My company was also not legally obliged to offer me any form of maternity leave nor were there any laws protecting me as a mother. Luckily my company was wonderful and I was given the same parental leave options, protections and pay as any other mother. Since then, being the first employee to take surrogacy leave, our company has adjusted their parental leave policy to include non-traditional ways of having a child so I feel proud that my journey may help others behind me.
Building #BraverCultures
I would encourage managers and companies to engage in open and transparent conversations with their full-time working parents. I have been able to experience both condensed working hours (meaning I was valued and measured for my output rather than the number of hours I kept) and agile hybrid working, and these really help with my work-family-life balance. I always look for ways to utilise my experiences as a working parent to help others and to assist my company to expand the boundaries of our culture and ways of working. I also want to show my daughter that you can do whatever you want to do and I hope I inspire her to reach her dreams!