The Christmas miracle for expectant mum Nikki after tragic loss: 'I'm still pinching myself'

It's the Christmas miracle more than seven years in the making.

After seven miscarriages, six embryo transfers and 18 IVF cycles, 32-year-old Nikki Quinn is finally pregnant with a little baby boy due next year.

The proud Gamilaraay woman and nurse is over the moon but admits while she's excited to finally start this happy chapter of her life, it's not been an easy run to get here.

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Quinn has had an uphill battle for almost 20 years, after being diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia at just 13.

As she tells 9honey, at such a young age she was forced to make some serious decisions about her treatment, including what she wanted to do to protect her fertility.

"There was the option of freezing my eggs before we started treatment, but back then, being 2004, the eggs weren't surviving the defrost."

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So with egg freezing ruled out, she was told to either find a sperm donor to create an embryo, or take a risk with her fertility after the cancer treatment.

Quinn says a conversation with her family meant she would take the risk.

"I have a lot of cousins that would donate some eggs to me and we made the decision that if I was to need eggs, we would use [an egg from] a genetically related family member so there was still that genetic connection," she says.

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The risk didn't pay off and cancer treatment severely damaged Quinn's fertility, eventually holding her back from her dream of becoming a mother.

"I have wanted to be a mum since I was a little girl, I've always been really maternal," she says.

When Quinn turned 25 and decided to start trying for a baby with her partner Jade, they weren't surprised it didn't happen straight away.

But what did surprise them was that it still wasn't happening seven years later.

"I unfortunately experienced seven miscarriages, so there have been lots of tears."?

She admits the constant disappointment almost made her give up.

"I was tired, the medication had made me put on quite a bit of weight which affects the late effects of my cancer. I'm 32, so I was like 'How long do I do this for?', before looking at other options like surrogacy or something."

Quinn says she couldn't have continued without the "village" of family around her.

"I'm really lucky that I have a lot of support around me, to pick me up and allow me to cry and scream and be angry."

Quinn acknowledges it was her supportive family along with her self-confessed stubbornness that kept her going.

"I just knew I would eventually carry my own child and I just wanted to be pregnant, call it stubbornness but I just didn't want to give up on that dream."

"We've been saving for a house and all that money has now been spent on IVF ¨C I'm very fortunate that my mum and my dad have also given us money and that's definitely allowed us to keep trying¡­ but a wedding and a house have now been put on the back burner."

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While the dream of owning their own home is on hold, Quinn's dream and persistence to become a mum finally paid off.

Quinn is now 13 weeks pregnant and feels "extremely lucky" about her Christmas miracle.

"My partner did say that when we had our viability scan, he's like 'the sound that came out of you, I've never heard that before', it was just like happy excited, I was so overwhelmed and I was sobbing, it's just so surreal ¨C I'll never forget that moment."

It's now 17 years since Quinn went into remission for leukaemia, and her pregnancy is considered high-risk, but so far her baby boy is showing positive signs.

"He's very active and they said he's just under seven centimetres today so he's actually measuring a day ahead, so he's doing really, really well."

But the expectant mum admits it's still been an emotional rollercoaster.

"I'm still pinching myself.

"I'm so excited, I'm still in shock, I still feel very scared, like I keep asking Is this for real?'

"I can't even describe how happy I am, but I'm also terrified every second as well after experiencing the miscarriages."

She adds, "We've never gotten to this point where we've had a really strong heartbeat and my scans and bloods have looked really good from the beginning."

Quinn who works as a nurse at Westmead Children's hospital, where she was once treated as a patient, says she's living proof there is life after cancer and is urging people to donate to the children's cancer appeal this Christmas to give other sick kids a hopeful future.

She says "if it wasn't for people donating, then I wouldn't be here today," because "the research and funding makes such big impacts on children, not just currently fighting illness but for the survivors too.

"Every little bit is helping to change lives."

Nikki is encouraging people to 'Donate Their Age' this Christmas to support life saving research at the Children's Cancer Institute. To donate, visit: ccia.org.au