The nurse from Lincolnshire and her partner borrowed £15,000 to pay for IVF treatment after being refused help on NHS

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A 55-year-old grandmother has become Britain’s oldest mother of triplets.

Sharon Cutts and her boyfriend, Stuart Reynolds, 40, welcomed sons Mason and Ryan and daughter Lily into their family last month.

Don’t ask me if I’ve got a family Read more

Cutts, who has four grown-up children from a previous relationship, said she did not care that the babies were younger than her grandchildren.

“It means they’ve got lots of playmates,” she told The Sun.

The NHS will only perform IVF up to the age of 42 so the couple went to a private clinic before travelling to Cyprus for the procedure.

Cutts, who is a nurse, said: “I knew there was a possibility of multiple births because the doctor put four embryos in me, for a higher chance of conceiving.

“At the scan we were told there were three heartbeats. Stuart was shocked and I was in tears, crying with joy.

“The first thing I thought was: ‘Oh my God, how am I going to cope?”’

Reynolds, a factory worker, said: “I was excited, and then bricking it. Now they’re here I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

The couple from Boston, Lincolnshire, took out loans of £15,000 to pay the medical bills.

The pregnancy was fraught with problems and doctors advised one of the babies should be aborted due to the dangers of pregnancy at that age.

Cutts refused and the triplets were born by Caesarean section, after an 11-week stay in Nottingham University Hospital. They each weighed between 4lbs and 5lbs.

She also revealed she gave herself Botox injections and fresh hair extensions in hospital before going into labour.

“I only injected a little bit, because really you shouldn’t do it while you’re pregnant,” she told The Sun.

“I sneaked out to get my hair extensions changed too. It was important to me to look my best for when the babies were born.”