Last year, 72 grants of up to $10,000 were awarded after the Mowbrays donated $500,000 and an additional $182,000 was raised from donations. To date, at least 10 \u201cGingernut\u2019s Angels\u201d babies have been born from IVF treatment with help from the fund, and more than 20 women are pregnant at the moment. Other recipients have yet to undergo embryo transfers. <\/p>\n
This year, 125 grants were awarded from the $1.128m fund, boosted by the Mowbrays\u2019 $1m donation. Pregnancies from this year\u2019s funding round have yet to be established. <\/p>\n
Lupton says she will continue indefinitely with Gingernut\u2019s Angels, or at least until 1000 babies are born. She knows the joy of becoming a mother after years of heartbreak. <\/p>\n
Jaimee Lupton with daughter Noa at their Coatesville home. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
During the Herald on Sunday\u2019s interview with Lupton, she rarely takes her eyes off Noa, who runs about her Coatesville home, swinging her arms, posing for photos and investigating the contents of the photographer\u2019s gear bag.<\/p>\n
Lupton knows her fertility struggle to provide a brother or sister for Noa won\u2019t be an easy one, and says she\u2019s acutely aware of the costs involved \u2013 between $15,000 and $23,000 depending on treatment. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just remember when we were trying over a five-year period, every time a bill came in it was just absurd.\u201d <\/p>\n
She\u2019s aware how lucky she is not to have to worry about money. For her, she says, the question is \u201cwhat\u2019s next, what\u2019s the plan?\u201d not \u201ccan we afford it?\u201d <\/p>\n
As a result, she and Mowbray want to open their own not-for-profit IVF clinic, starting with one in Auckland, to provide a more affordable option. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur big goal is to start an IVF clinic ourselves and that is definitely under way, with many discussions between me and him [Nick] about it.\u201d <\/p>\n
The couple have already started talking about who they would want on their IVF team. As well as financial support, those going through fertility struggles need emotional support, Lupton says, describing the IVF process as \u201cextremely gruelling\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all you can think about. You wake up thinking about it, you go to bed thinking about it. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s extremely isolating. So many people are going through it and I think unless you\u2019ve gone through it yourself, you don\u2019t really truly understand the toll emotionally on your relationships with your family, with yourself.\u201d <\/p>\n
Jaimee Lupton says going through fertility struggles and IVF can be extremely isolating. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
Lupton works with three New Zealand fertility clinics, Fertility Associates, Repromed and the government-funded Te Whatu Ora provider Fertility Plus. The three clinics support Gingernut\u2019s Angels recipients by giving a 20% discount for treatment and drugs. <\/p>\n
That discount and a grant of up to $10,000 for each applicant means most IVF rounds, including egg freezing, are within reach of Kiwis wanting to start a family but unable to afford the full cost. <\/p>\n
Te Whatu Ora\u2019s Fertility Plus is the only fertility clinic in New Zealand providing a mix of publicly and privately funded IVF treatment. Of about 500 IVF procedures it carries out each year, 75% are publicly funded and 25% are private. <\/p>\n
Those on the public waiting list need to meet certain criteria, which include an age and BMI (body mass index) limit. Fertility Plus\u2019 service clinical director Dr Cindy Farquhar says those seeking a publicly funded consultation need a referral from a GP. Couples with unexplained infertility need to have been trying to conceive for five years; those with a known cause of infertility can be referred after a year. <\/p>\n
Publicly funded patients can wait up to four months for their first specialist assessment by the clinic after being referred. They are limited to two rounds of IVF.<\/p>\n
People applying for Gingernut\u2019s Angels grants to help fund IVF do not face similar restrictions. Lupton says she and Mowbray want to do as much as they can to make fertility treatment more accessible and affordable for Kiwis. <\/p>\n
Keeping in touch with the mums<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Lupton is focused on Gingernut\u2019s Angels. She doesn\u2019t know who has received a grant \u2013 a decision made by the foundation\u2019s \u201cGuardian Angels\u201d panel, which includes Repromed\u2019s medical director Dr Devashana Gupta, and former chairwoman and group medical director of Fertility Associates, Dr Mary Birdsall. <\/p>\n
Dr Mary Birdsall, former group medical director at Fertility Associates, is part of the selection panel at Gingernut’s Angels. <\/p>\n
But she\u2019s regularly approached by grateful members of the public thanking her for giving them a chance to have a baby. And she keeps in touch with many of the mums who shared their pregnancy news with her. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is not a team behind this charity,\u201d Lupton says. \u201cIt\u2019s me replying and getting live updates on the babies.\u201d <\/p>\n
Lupton says she cried when she heard the first baby, Billie, was born in June to Hawke\u2019s Bay couple Brittany and Mathew Meyer as a result of IVF funded by the foundation. <\/p>\n
Billie Meyer, aged 4 months, the daughter of Hawke’s Bay couple Brittany and Mathew Meyer.<\/p>\n
Fertility complications meant IVF was the couple\u2019s only option. They managed to fund one round in early 2023, which resulted in Brittany falling pregnant with a baby boy. <\/p>\n
But tragedy struck when, as a result of her undiagnosed pre-eclampsia condition, baby Baxter was stillborn at full term. The couple had one embryo left but Brittany miscarried in March last year, destroying her chances of becoming a mum. <\/p>\n
However, after successfully applying for a Gingernut\u2019s Angels grant, the Meyers went through another round of IVF. Billie, whose middle name is Baxter in memory of her late brother, was born in June this year by caesarean at 35 weeks after Brittany developed pre-eclampsia again. It was a tense moment, waiting for Billie to take her first breath and cry. <\/p>\n
\u201cWith Baxter of course we didn\u2019t hear any crying,\u201d Brittany says. \u201cAnd finally we heard that cry. As soon as you hear it, it\u2019s amazing.\u201d <\/p>\n
Billie spent the first week of her life in Hawke\u2019s Bay Hospital\u2019s special care baby unit. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe didn\u2019t seem real because she wasn\u2019t in our room.\u201d <\/p>\n
Brittany says she and her husband will always be grateful to Gingernut\u2019s Angels. <\/p>\n
Brittany and Mathew Meyer, of Hawke’s Bay, with their daughter Billie, who was born with the help of IVF treatment. <\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single day, we remind ourselves how truly lucky we are to have our little girl, Billie. Watching Billie grow into such a bright, chatty little 4-month-old has been the most beautiful journey. She\u2019s full of smiles, laughter, and already showing her own little spark of sass. Our hearts are so full.\u201d <\/p>\n
Brittany stays in regular contact with Lupton, as does Aucklander Louise Peel, who played a part in the idea behind Gingernut\u2019s Angels. Peel\u2019s baby Ruby was stillborn at 24 weeks in 2021 after a few years of fertility issues, including miscarriages. When Lupton posted on social media she had lost Gingernut, Peel says she instantly recognised the raw grief Lupton was feeling. <\/p>\n
The two women formed a bond, leading Lupton to offer to fund a round of IVF, which Peel and her fiance Wesley Haggas could not afford. Peel\u2019s health complications delayed her fertility treatment but she is now due to give birth to a baby girl in early January. <\/p>\n
Auckland couple Louise Peel and Wesley Haggas are expecting a baby daughter in January 2026 after undergoing a round of IVF funded by Jaimee Lupton and Nick Mowbray.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are so incredibly excited and grateful to be pregnant, and to have made it this far,\u201d Peel told the Herald on Sunday. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s taken a long time for it to truly sink in, even now, I still have to pinch myself that it\u2019s really happening. After so many years of heartbreak and loss, there were moments we thought it might never happen for us, and that was an absolutely devastating feeling. <\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t wait to finally become a mum and hold our little girl in my arms. She is already so loved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peel says she and her husband would be forever grateful to Gingernut\u2019s Angels. <\/p>\n
\u201cWithout them, this may never have been possible and that thought breaks my heart. We feel so incredibly lucky, even in an unlucky situation.\u201d <\/p>\n
It was Peel\u2019s fertility struggles and the offer to fund an IVF round that led to Lupton and Mowbray to think they could do more to help those without the financial means to combat infertility. <\/p>\n
Lupton says she and Mowbray are constantly asked to support various charities or donate to causes. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very different truly creating something that you believe in and that, as a direct result of it, is human life. It\u2019s the best.\u201d <\/p>\n
The next grant applications for Gingernut\u2019s Angels funding open on June 1, 2026, and close on June 30. <\/p>\n
Jane Phare is the New Zealand Herald\u2019s deputy print editor. <\/p>\n