Amanda Webb is a Lions veteran, having started working at the Club over 10 years ago in the Finance Department. Since then she has transitioned to a player welfare and football administration role in the Club’s football department, a role which she relishes, but her career journey at the Lions pales in comparison to the unbelievable journey she has been on to become a mother.

“The wellbeing side of my role has many different aspects to it but in summary, it is about building relationships with and looking out for the best interests of each of the playing group along with their partners, their children and their families” Amanda told Lions Media.

“I love helping people and being surrounded by people.  If I can make just the smallest difference to someone’s life or make their day somehow, then I am happy.”

These qualities and responsibilities are not dissimilar to those that it takes to be a mum – something which Amanda has dreamed of her whole life. Unfortunately, she hasn’t had the smoothest ride when it comes to becoming one.

In January 2012, 18 months after her marriage to partner Ryan, they had discussed starting a family and upon having some testing done it was discovered that Amanda had stage 1b cervical cancer. 

“My treatment was organised very quickly and by February I underwent 3 cycles of chemotherapy in the hope that it would shrink the cancer so that I could have a fertility saving operation on my cervix” Amanda said.

“After the chemo, the MRI showed that the treatment was very successful and had shrunk the cancer enough that I could have a rare procedure called a radical trachelectomy.

“An Austrian surgeon performed my surgery here at the Royal Brisbane - it was only the 6^th that he had done – and it went well, no cancer was found post-op.

“I am now 8 years post cancer diagnosis and as of January this year I have been given the all clear and have graduated from the gynaecological oncology department of the Mater Hospital.”

After surgery Amanda was advised by medical professionals to wait 2 years for her body to recover before trying to conceive.  Following this, and after trying for several months, Amanda and Ryan went to see a fertility specialist. 

“He advised us to do IVF sooner rather than later and so we completed our first egg collection at the end of 2013 and over the next 12 months we transferred embryo after embryo with none of them working” Amanda said.

“It was towards the end of 2014 we were told that we had little to no chance of ever conceiving or having our own children and we were advised to look into surrogacy.

“In 2015 we travelled to Mumbai, India to pursue overseas commercial surrogacy - we underwent IVF over there in a clinic and created 5 embryos, however in that time India closed banned surrogacy so we transported our embryos to Nepal.

“In August 2015 we transferred embryos into a surrogate however they didn’t take and shortly after that Nepal closed its doors on surrogacy as well.

“We then looked into surrogacy in Australia and met a woman who was surrogate for another couple, she invited us into a closed Facebook Group of potential surrogates and Intended Parents (IP’s) just like us.

“We rode the highs and lows of Australian surrogacy for 3 years before meeting Machelle, her husband Sam and her 2 children Paige and Ray. 

“It was like meeting long lost friends - we hit it off straight away-  and shortly after that Machelle offered to be our surrogate.

“We were over the moon and we started the very simple but long surrogacy process of fertility specialist appointments, counselling sessions with psychologists, legal’s and surrogacy contracts with two sets of lawyers amongst a long list of other things, but in mid-2018 we were ready to start transferring embryos into our surrogate.”

In wonderful news Machelle fell pregnant with Amanda and Ryan’s baby In February of this year after five attempts and it seemed Amanda was finally going to realise her dream of becoming a mother – but there was to be a plot twist.

In mid-March, Amanda feeling unwell, booked herself in to see a doctor. The doctor ordered her to have a full blood count done and an ultrasound. 

“I booked myself in to have the ultrasound and it was at this moment I found out that I was pregnant - a complete shock and surprise” She said.

“Our surrogate at this point was 7 weeks pregnant and I was 14 weeks pregnant - a very unique situation.”

Amanda and Ryan now have two miracle baby boys on the way, due just months apart, and are looking forward to all of the joy, love, trials and tribulations that parenthood brings with it.

“We have to pinch ourselves every day that this is happening to us and we are not for one second taking it for granted.  We can’t thank our surrogate and friend Machelle enough for helping us become a family” She said.

“Call me stubborn and possibly silly, but I was determined to not give up on my dream of becoming a mum and to fight this infertility battle to the end.

“Infertility is cruel, and it comes in many forms.  Looking back on my journey I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

“My advice for other women out there going through this is don’t give up, chase your dreams for as long as you possibly can, have patience - good things come to those who wait. 

“I had to wait 8 long years, but it will happen just as long as you have the determination, the resilience, the time and the support.  

“Now I can’t wait for the day they can both give me a cute little smile, a kiss on the cheek and when they can say “I love you mummy”.