My pal found out she had non-hodgkins lymphona more than three years ago. She had a year of chemo and was on the pill as per the instructions of her doctors for all the reasons you have said.

She was more devastated by the fact she was told the treatment would more than likely, nearly 100 per cent, render her infertile, than receiving news of the cancer.

All this happened while she was living in London and then during her last chemo month she visited me and left her pill behind. To cut a long story short, she SOMEHOW got pregnant but didnt know because following the information from her doctors she imagined by chemo month 11 her fertility was gone.

Anyway it was some months later (6months into pregnancy) with a growing belly that we did a test. Her tummy grew huge in the previous two weeks but she still didnt think it was pregnancy as she couldnt.

The baby did receive the chemo from her last month of treatment, but thankfully her miracle baby is beautiful, healthy, smart and a right wee star. My pal has just had her second child. I always knew you only had to sit beside her or her sisters to get them pregnant.

Her doctors were very annoyed with her but since then everything is great, she’s had her recent 2 and a half year all-clear and is feeling great.

Here’s a link to a pic of the beautiful baby herself. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/redmum/43014800/in/set-940243/) And I hope you are feeling reasonably well Sinead, it sounds like you have a tough time.

(Hopefully you don’t think this is too much off topic, I have a tendency to ramble…)

There maybe times when debates about ethics and medical treatment are required but this clearly isn’t one of them. This is proof that, sometimes, debate pays people a respect they’ve done nothing to deserve. The minister should be demanding their instant removal from their positions.