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DIANE Blood has always dreaded the moment one of her sons asked her about the facts of life - the facts of their lives, in particular.

As the woman who won a historic legal battle to use her dead husband's sperm to conceive - he'd passed away before he could give his consent - her explanation would involve more than birds and bees.

So she had an answer prepared when Liam, eight, recently interrupted his game of snap with his four-year-old brother Joel to ask: "Mummy, how did the doctors help you get pregnant?"

Diane, 40, says: "I explained that daddy left a lot of love at the hospital and the doctors used that love to give mummy a baby. When more questions come, I'll answer them as truthfully as I can.

"Liam was with me at the IVF clinic when I was trying to get pregnant with Joel and knows they have the same daddy, who died before they were born.

"None of their friends know how my sons were conceived. But I'll tell Liam and Joel when they can grasp the facts - otherwise there's a danger someone else could break the news, since my story is so well remembered. People still congratulate me in the streets and strangers still send Christmas cards."

Tomorrow, Diane will take her boys to their daddy's grave and leave their latest drawings beside the headstone, to mark what would have been Stephen's 42nd birthday.

And the trip will be particularly poignant as it marks the 10th anniversary of the day Diane won the Appeal Court decision which gave her the right to create her son's lives.

"To many people back then, the ruling was the end of my story. But it was only the beginning," she says. "When we're at the grave, I know Stephen will be looking down and feeling proud that we're here. We just wish he was, too."

The moving tale of a young widow fighting to create new life with her dead husband sparked fierce legal, moral and medical debate.

Although 90 per cent of the public surveyed in one poll supported her endeavour, Diane's critics branded her a freak and a ghoul.

Some were appalled at her decision to ask doctors to mechanically extract sperm from Stephen, who was struck down with meningitis and comatose, as he lay on his deathbed in 1995.

A DECADE on, as Diane hugs her sons, there is defiance when she says: "I want to tell all the critics who said that I'd cause the destruction of mankind - and predicted that we'd suffer psychological problems - that we are still here, happy and healthy.

"To those who said they should never have been born, look at my sons now."

Liam and Joel's photos outnumber the pictures of Stephen around Diane's neat bungalow in Worksop, Notts.

And Stephen's precious belongings take up only one drawer. "I threw out a lot as soon as I came back from court that day," says Diane. "I had some sort of closure."

Diane, a freelance copywriter, could have no better reminder of the man she loved than his boys. Liam has his daddy's looks and logic. Joel has his cheerful persona. Both are as yet unaware of their mum's fight to bring them into this world.

Consent was the contentious issue of Diane's court battle, as her sons are not the first born by IVF after their father died but are the first conceived without his written consent.

Publicity generated by her case prompted many other couples to discuss similar what-if situations.

Since then, an average of five babies each year have been born posthumously.

However, Diane feels unnerved by the case of Rachel Cohen, the mother of an Israeli soldier who was killed by a sniper, who has won the right to use his sperm to impregnate a donor mother.

She says: "If I have encouraged other couples to have that vital discussion, and saved someone the pain of court, then I feel proud. But I didn't think of campaigning for others. All I thought of was carrying on the life Stephen and I had planned by having the children we wanted.

"As for the Israeli soldier, I think that's rather strange. I'm not an advocate for this kind of treatment, I just did what was right for me."

Diane and Stephen, who worked for her father's firm company, had been together for 12 years and married for three when they decided to try for a baby - months before meningitis took Stephen's life.

The couple, who had been teen sweethearts, read an article about a women who wanted to freeze her late husband's sperm and discussed their wishes in the same situation.

"Stephen said he'd want me to have his baby if he died," says Diane. Their intimate chat was recited repeatedly throughout Diane's two-year court battle.

LEGAL wranglings with the Human Fertilisation And Embryology Authority left Diane, who was still struggling with her grief, emotionally drained.

Lawyer's bills spiralled over #150,000 and pushed her to the verge of bankruptcy.

But winning the case, and 60 per cent of her costs, was only the beginning. For Diane still had to endure IVF and knew the procedure had only a 20 per cent success rate.

She suffered unsuccessful attempts before Liam and Joel were born - and the stress of such an ordeal, while knowing that her husband's sperm and money was running out, is hard to fathom.

A confidentiality agreement with the clinic in Belgium, which has no fertility laws, prevents Diane from disclosing many details. But she looks broken when she says: "Neither of my sons were born in first rounds of IVF.

"So although winning my case was a miracle, so was giving birth."

Since Stephen's death, Diane has not dated another man - she still wears her own wedding ring and her husband's on her right hand. But she isn't ruling out the possibility.

"If Mr Wonderful comes along, and he's great with the kids, then lovely.

But I still enjoy a warmth knowing that I had Stephen's love."

She still hears his voice in her head and tries to consider his feelings in their sons' upbringing. But she admits that voice is fading.

Diane explains: "I'm hearing Stephen less and less as the years go on, which is incredibly sad, but I guess it's natural after 12 years.

"I still miss my husband terribly and I'm sad for him, as he never lived to see our beautiful boys.

"He'd have been a fantastic dad.

It hurts to know he missed out on the joy his boys have brought me.

But I'm sure he knows they're here.

"While Stephen was in a coma, nurses told me he might still be able to hear. So I whispered: 'It's OK, they've got your sperm.' I think that would have brought him comfort."

For now, Diane's life revolves around her boys, who still have close bonds with Stephen's parents.

But she would rather forget about the past and look forward, to see her boys grow into handsome, loving young men, just like their daddy.

"This all started with a tragedy," says Diane. "But now I look at Liam and Joel, and realise I've had an incredibly lucky life."

Julie.Mccaffrey@Mirror.Co.Uk