An inspirational website to support people who are childless is asking people to share their stories
Walkinginourshoes.org.uk asks participants to post a photo of their shoes and tell their own story on how they came to be childless not by choice.
The website was set up by a woman called Berenice, from Cambridge, who is herself childless after going through six IVF cycles, with her husband, Kenny and their dog, Molly.
The concept for the website was born from a Masters in Graphic Design and Typography degree.
Berenice states on the website: “I encourage positive stories of coping, friendship and success. Walk in Our Shoes is a website inspired by, and created for, men and women who are childless through circumstance and not by choice.”
One of the stories on the website, documents Spike’s struggle with not becoming a father
He said: “Christmas often finds me at work. I’m a fireman and if there’s work going I’d take it and any extra shifts I could to avoid anything festive.
“I am infertile. I found out after my wife and I went for investigations. We tried to save up for IVF as the PCT doesn’t offer it here and in any case she already has a daughter so we wouldn’t have qualified. She was a teacher and neither of us earned enough really. We scraped enough for one cycle of ICSI but we lost the pregnancy a week before Christmas, five years ago at 13 weeks. A year later our marriage had ended even though we had been through therapy so you can only guess how I felt about Christmas…”
Berenice has also set up a closed group Facebook page for people to join and support each other.