Meet Bo and Herbie. The birth of these twins is a story of love, perseverance and hope. (Photographed at 14 days old.)

Their parents, Niki and Jason, have had trouble tried getting pregnant for years. When IVF didn’t work them, they both looked for other options and decided to give egg donation a go.

Finding an egg donor proved to be difficult. Their story was featured in one of the national papers and after it was published, 200 women contacted Niki and Jason, all willing to donate their eggs. For various reasons, they couldn’t find a suitable donor from the people who contacted them at that time. In the end, one of Niki’s old friends stepped forward to donate her eggs to the couple. Not too long after, Niki became pregnant.

And now, she is blessed with twins–a boy and a girl.

There is a huge shortage of egg donors in the UK where there is an average waiting list for two to five years. Moreover, since donor anonymity has been removed by the law, fertility clinics are seeing an adverse effect in the number of spem and eggs being donated. Niki and Jason supports the National Gamete Donation Trust, a government-funded charity which aims to raise awareness about egg donation and change the problem of donor shortage. For more details, visit the NGDT website.

{Niki, it was such a pleasure and a privilege to have met you and your beautiful twins! Your love and devotion was so evident and so beautiful to see. It’s my hope that other people get inspired by your story as I did . I cannot wait to show you the rest of your photographs!}