A couple who were told they would never be able to have a baby reduced viewers to tears as they welcomed a healthy little girl on Channel 4 favourite One Born Every Minute.
Jen, 31, who was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in her twenties but had been suffering from the debilitating symptoms as early as her early teens, beat the odds to conceive with ex-soldier John, also 31, and the pair appeared on the show to share their emotional journey.
'At the age of 11, I started to feel quite unwell a lot of the time, and the doctors diagnosed me with stomach migraines,' Jen explained to the audience.
Image: Channel 4
But at 22, the full extent of her illness started to become apparent; she was vomiting all the time, and using the toilet up to 40 times a day.
After the Crohn's diagnosis, Jen said she lost most of the next decade to her illness, and was told by doctors she wouldn't be able to have a baby.
'When I turned 21 and first started being diagnosed with things, I basically lost the whole of my twenties to my illness,' she says. 'I spent the vast majority of my early twenties in and out of hospital.'
'I lost friends, boyfriends, everything.'
She added that whilst it was difficult to find love when people tend to see a condition first and foremost, rather than a person, met her match in beau Jon, who couldn't be prouder of the mother of his child.
Image: Channel 4
'When Jen told me about her problems, I didn't see it as that big of a deal – it's not a big deal at all!' he said.
The new father had also dealt with his own share of personal struggles after leaving the army in 2009.
He admitted that he saw 'quite a lot of horrific incidents... a lot of people are getting injured around you, and you feel sort of – indestructible.'
'It's very important that I'm there to support Jon, for the sheer amount of support that he gives me,' Jen said of her other half.
'I don't quit anything, and I'm never going to give up on him – and he needs to realise that.'
The emotional moment when the couple welcomed daughter Bella Noelle moved hundreds of viewers to tears, with many posting their reactions on the One Born Every Minute Facebook page.
'Love this - I have Ulcerative Colitis and I remember when I was in hospital having my daughter I was so happy because I was in there for a happy reason and for once I was going to be leaving hospital with something extra, not just the privilege of feeling like a normal human being,' wrote one Facebook user, who recognised similarities to her own experience.
Another agreed: 'Just watched it and was very emotional, she's a beautiful girl and like wise, her partner has been through major trauma and just love that they support each other.'
'Diamond guy. Bless him not many understand when u ill they walk or use u takes a real man to be there for you when poorly,' a third commented. 'Good luck much love to them.'
