Saira Khan has moved Loose Women viewers, after emotionally discussing the adoption of her daughter Amara.
Saira and her seven-year-old child took to the Loose Women studios yesterday to discuss the incredibly moving story of adopting Amara from an orphanage in Pakistan.
After struggling to conceive a second child with husband Steve Hyde through IVF, Saira embarked on the adoption process for nine months.
Saira explained that unwanted babies in Pakistan are put into a cradles at bus stops, shopping centers and sides of roads - or can be left at an orphanage.
Speaking to the panel, the 48-year-old explained: 'If you don’t want your baby, you ring the bell, you walk away, and the people from the orphanage will come and take it. The sign on the top says, ‘Please do not kill your baby, leave it here, we will look after it’.'
With such a desperate need for these babies to find loving homes, Saira added that the process is a very startling one: 'I got a phone call six days after going into Pakistan and they said, ‘A baby girl’s been abandoned’. I didn’t choose, Amara was the baby that was there.'
Visibly emotional, Saira then discussed her experience meeting Amara for the first time when she was less than a week old: 'She was tiny. All I remember is when they put her in my arms - she was mine.'
However, the experience was also a distressing one - as Saira then detailed how Amara was 'rushed into intensive care' straight after due to health complications.
Saira was then given the option to adopt a different child due to Amara's health scare, an option she fervently rejected.
'The doctor said, ‘Do you want to carry on or do you want to take the baby back?’ And I said, 'This baby is mine and whatever happens to her, I am taking her back to the UK.’ And I did. She was in intensive care for seven days.'
Emotionally, Saira then added that she feels incredibly lucky to have been able to adopt her daughter: 'We know nothing but I always say, and I’m going to take this moment to say it to whoever is out there. Thank you for putting her in that cradle.,'
'I am so grateful that I had infertility problems because I would never have had this beautiful child in my life.'
Saira has been praised in the past for remaining so transparent about her family's ups and downs.
Words by Alice-Rose Perry
