real life

For seven years this couple tried to have a baby. She found out she was pregnant the eve of his funeral.

 

By SHAUNA ANDERSON

Their struggle with IVF has been filmed, documented and followed on their YouTube Channel.

For three years the QLD couple saved to be able to afford the expense of IVF.

And throughout it all Kristy shared her joys, her disappointments and her desperation on social media.

Her husband Royce the shy “man of her dreams” a reluctant star in her YouTube channel.

Last month her life took a path no one could have predicted.

In an unbelievable twist of fate Kristy finally found out she was pregnant. Five days after their first cycle of IVF the test she had been waiting for was successful.

But her husband Royce – her side kick and best friend was not there to share the joy.

It was the night before his funeral.

Royce had died in a car accident on October 8th just ten minutes away from their Mount Archer home in Central Queensland, his car twisted around a tree killing him instantly.

Kristy usually bubbly and buoyant announced the news to her followers. She wrote “This is the hardest video I have ever had to make.”

“I’m pregnant, but this is not how I was supposed to be telling this story” she tearfully told her YouTube viewers.

 

 

 

Kristy was devastated; her world had turned upside down. But she knew she had to survive for her unborn baby she calls Pacey.

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“Right now this baby… My dream and Royce’s dream is my reason for living,”

A Current Affair spoke to Kristy about the moment she announced she was pregnant.

Kristy and Royce

 

 

It was at her husband’s funeral.

“At the funeral I debated whether I was going to announce it in Royce’s eulogy,” she said.

“And it was really difficult but I decided to do that because Royce was right next to me in the casket. This was the last time I could announce to the world with my husband that we were pregnant.”

In an unbelievable blow Kirsty soon realised that life without her husband was going to be even tougher than she thought as bills began piling up.

In order to pay for the IVF they had cancelled Royce’s life insurance just weeks before he died, and Kirsty had recently quit her job.

Kristy had documented her struggle with fertility.

 

 

Her and Royce’s dream of a baby had come true but there was no way she could afford it.

But sometimes social media can be used for the power of good, and this is one of those times.

Family and friends of Kristy started a fundraising page and within 22 days it has made over $16,000.

Followers of her channel, other women and men struggling with infertility, friends of friends and complete strangers donating anything from hundreds of dollars to $10.

“This. Is. Amazing! Thank you so much everyone for raising such a huge amount to help ease the situation I have been faced with, and for caring for me enough to be so kind,” Kristy wrote.

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“I never expected such an overwhelming response.

“At best, I hoped I might be able to get $200 for petrol and some groceries!”

Nine’s A Current Affair went one step further and renovated her home.

Kristy now hopes that she can find a job and continue to live in the house she and Royce loved so much.

“I will find a way because I want Pacey to feel his or her daddy’s presence and there is no where in this world stronger than the home he had such big dreams for.” she wrote on the site.

 

She told A Current Affair that it has been the online community that has helped her get through these last few weeks.

“I was inconsolable, devastated, I just fell to pieces.

“It was only through the word of encouragement and reassurance on the YouTube channel that made me feel like there was hope again. That’s all I’m clinging onto at the moment.”

If you want to follow Kristy’s journey you can via her YouTube Channel.

You can donate to her GoFundMe page here