Health, Cancer | Ingrid (37) has received bone marrow and eggs from people she does not know who they are. It has saved her life, and given her the world’s finest gift

One year old Hedda smiles widely as she sits on the sofa with mum Ingrid and dad William, at home in the living room in Væretrøa in Ranheim.

– She is our little miracle, beams Ingrid, who was born and raised in Namdalseid.

Ten years ago was it goes without saying that Ingrid should sit here on the sofa and make plans for the spring and summer, and then have given birth to a daughter. Then she suddenly and brutally faced the fight of her life after being diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukaemia. She was active, played sports and worked as a nurse at St. Olav’s hospital when she felt something was wrong in the late summer of 2010. She finds swollen lymph nodes in several places on her body, and she becomes completely exhausted after a short training session.

– I remember lying on the floor and shaking. I was nauseous and dizzy, and everything felt strange, she says.

After several visits to the doctor and tests, she receives a phone call from St. Olav. They ask her to come. Ingrid, who is a trained nurse, thinks that it is not a good sign.

– It was a bit like standing in a vacuum. I knew something was wrong, but not what it was, or what it would mean.

At the hospital, Ingrid is told that she has contracted acute lymphocytic leukemia, and that the treatment must start the same day. She receives chemotherapy and steroids. Tough weeks of treatment await. First the body must be broken down, then rebuilt, then some rest before another round of chemotherapy. This is how the autumn goes, but without the treatment helping.

At Christmas, the doctors find out that a bone marrow donor can make Ingrid healthy. There is a 95 percent chance of finding a donor, but Ingrid is among the five percent for whom there is no donor. This leads to an advertisement in Trønder-Avisa, where local forces are calling for donors.

– Together with some local forces, I talked about my situation, and the importance of donors signing up. I received a good response and feedback that many people had signed up to donate, says Ingrid.

When her bone marrow was waiting, she was investigated to get umbilical cord blood from a newborn baby. In the middle of the investigation, however, a bone marrow donor appears who can make Ingrid healthy. The donor is anonymous, but she knows from the time zone code on the package that it comes from the other side of the globe. Ingrid is admitted to Rikshospitalet in Oslo. Here they almost have to kill her before the body is ready for new bone marrow.

– The whole body is irradiated for two hours every day for five days. In addition, I receive large doses of chemotherapy. In the end, I am completely needy and cannot swallow my own saliva. I remembered a couple of my cousins ​​coming over to greet me through a window. They cried when they saw me because I looked bad, says Ingrid.

Ingrid had the bone marrow transferred on Midsummer’s Eve in 2011. Now it will be nine days before they see if it works. If it doesn’t work, she could die. After nine days, the blood values ​​begin to rise, but her life is not out of danger. After a month at the Rikshospitalet in Oslo, she is allowed to go home to Trøndelag, but with instructions that she must stay close to the hospital.

– Christmas Eve has become my second birthday. I am infinitely grateful that a donor appeared and that I have become cancer-free. At the same time, I am not who I was before I got sick. I tried to get back into working life, but it didn’t go so well. I suffer from fatigue and chronic reactions to the new bone marrow. After many attempts at different job percentages, I was finally completely sick on sick leave in 2017, she says.

The following year, Ingrid became disabled at the age of 30. It was not a good feeling.

– It wasn’t how I had imagined it would be. I didn’t get to work that many years before I got sick, but I enjoyed my job. I felt I was doing a meaningful job. In addition, it is about more than just the job, I also lost being part of a working community, and it has been hard to feel at times. Often when I talk to new people, and they ask what I do for a living, I can’t bear to say that I’m disabled, but just say that I’m a nurse.

At the same time as Ingrid became cancer-free, she went through menopause and became sterile at the age of 24. It was not something she thought about when she was in the middle of treatment for the disease. There and then it was all about survival. But she had always imagined that one day she would become a mother. And when she met William Freihow Sande, the desire to have a child grew stronger. When the couple got married in 2019, they wanted money for egg donation. In 2020, they were ready to travel to a fertility clinic in Spain. Then came the pandemic. While the couple waited for the virus from China to calm down, the Biotechnology Act in Norway was changed and from 1 January 2021 egg donation was allowed in Norway.

– We had the money and contacted a private clinic. When we had just inserted a fertilized egg, we received a call from St. Olav, who said they had an egg donor for us. We asked if they could hold it off so we could wait and see how it went with what I had put in. They were not particularly willing, but wanted to wait a couple of days, says Ingrid.

And when the first attempt ended with a bleed, Ingrid and her husband got the egg at St. Olav. It was inserted at the end of June in 2022, and in March of the following year little Hedda was born.

– I have received two big gifts in my life, both from two donors. One was vital, and the other was the world’s most beautiful little daughter. A donor can make an enormous difference in people’s lives, and that means an infinite amount, says Ingrid.

Husband William couldn’t agree more. He became a blood donor after he met Ingrid.

– A donor can make a huge difference. It’s a nice thing to do for others, and which may not cost the donor that much, other than making others happy, says William.

The fertility section at St. Olavs Hospital wants more eggs.

– We have approximately 1 to 2 egg donors a month, and usually they have enough eggs to share between two couples. Unfortunately, the need for egg donation is far greater in Norway, and other services are available at private fertility clinics, says Sigrun Kjøtrød, section chief at the fertility section at St. Olavs Hospital.

– As access to egg donors is today, childless women under the age of 40, who have gone through premature menopause due to previous cancer treatment (surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy), or who for known genetic reasons are going through premature menopause which causes them to lose their periods , help is offered to have a child. We do not have the opportunity to give these siblings with the help of a new donor, but if they are lucky enough to have frozen embryos after the first treatment, we of course welcome them to use these, says Kjøtrød.

An egg donor must be between 25 and 35 years of age, and have good egg reserves. They must attend an interview, examination and information at the Fertility Section. Here they have to take blood samples, both hormones and microbiological samples, bacteriological samples from the abdomen, and several vaginal ultrasound examinations.

– The treatment itself involves daily hormone injections that the woman herself inserts with a thin tip into the abdominal skin. Duration 10 to 20 days usually, depending on how quickly the eggs can mature. The egg retrieval is usually a simple intervention with ultrasound guidance and with a thin needle through the vaginal wall. A local anesthetic is placed in the vaginal wall and pain-relieving tablets are added. The vast majority of women think egg retrieval goes perfectly well, says Kjøtrød, and adds that an egg donor has no legal rights or obligations towards the child that may be born.

But you must be prepared that a possible child after the age of 15 may want to make contact. Egg donation is based on altruism, and the desire to do good for another family. The donor receives a small compensation of around NOK 5,500, covering travel and accommodation in Trondheim.