'Infertile' granny, 43, whose periods stopped 26 years ago learns her 'IBS' is really a baby

A 43-year-old grandmother who thought she couldn't have children has described the moment her 'IBS' turned out to be a child as 'incredible'.

Alison Dent, from Darlington, County Durham, was told she was infertile after an operation to remove part of her cervix resulted in her periods coming to a standstill.

But in October 2013, after 26 years of no periods, she learned her 'tummy' troubles were actually the result of a surprise pregnancy - with her little boy due in just eight weeks' time. 

Alison, who also has an older daughter, Kylie, had the 'routine' operation in her twenties to remove abnormal cervical cells. But her periods stopped completely, leaving Alison and her partner Robert facing a future without children of their own.

'Our baby dream was over,' recalled Alison, who is now 45. 'I felt bad for Robert but we threw ourselves into bringing up Kylie.'

Twenty years later, Alison learned she was going to become a grandmother when Kylie announced she was expecting a daughter of her own.

However just weeks later, Alison began experiencing 'tummy trouble' including pain and bloating.6

In March 2013, two months after her daughter's pregnancy news, she was diagnosed with IBS. Her doctor prescribed her medication to ease her symptoms:.

'But nothing worked,' Alison recalled. 'My belly continued to bloat and my ankles swelled and my breasts grew sore too.'

She even felt a 'sort of fluttering movement' inside her tummy which the doctor put down to trapped wind. 'I was back and forth to the doctors when the medication didn’t seem to have any effect,' Alison said.

In July 2013, Kylie gave birth to Caseylee, which Alison says was a 'welcome distraction' from her IBS woes. However, her belly was still swollen and she began to fear she may not be around to see her granddaughter grow up.

In October that year, she was rushed to hospital with abdominal pain - but to her surprise, the nurse took one look at her and said she'd need to be taken to the maternity ward.

'A look of horror must have crossed my face but I tried to make light of it,' Alison recalled. 'I told her: "I’m a granny - and I haven’t had a period in 26 years. There’s no way I’m pregnant."' 

After a series of scans and a procedure where a camera was fed down Alison's throat, a doctor delivered the news she’d been dreading: he believed it was a cyst.

'I was terrified when I went home that night and began to fear the worst,' Alison said. 'Doctors couldn’t confirm it wasn’t cancerous.'

The next day she returned for a scan, and was shocked when the nurse told her: ‘It’s not a cyst… it’s a baby.’

'How could I be pregnant? It didn’t make sense,' said Alison, who was convinced doctors had got the scan results mixed up. 

But the nurse was adamant; she was expecting a little boy, and he was due in eight weeks' time.

'I was stunned then,' said Alison. 'I was 32 weeks pregnant and I’d had no idea.' She called Robert, then aged 53,who initially thought she must be joking. 

'The pair of us were in a daze for days as the news slowly sunk in,' Alison recalled. 'Of course it was a relief to know it wasn’t something more sinister, but the last thing I’d been expecting was a baby.'

Alison's 'incredible surprise', Bobby Charles, was born in December 2013 - five months after her granddaughter arrived.

'After everything I’d been through, I’d become a gran and a mum in the space of a few months,' she said.

'Now, I’ve never been happier. I thought I was dying - instead, I got this little cutie.'

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