A man who donated sperm for IVF one hour before starting chemotherapy has told how his “miracle” daughter helps him keep going despite a tough cancer diagnosis. Liam Bradley, 38, was told he had bile duct cancer after experiencing flu-like symptoms in March 2025. He needed chemotherapy and was warned he was unlikely to be fertile after the treatment.
With partner Lois Rose, 30, he made the decision to donate sperm before starting treatment. The couple welcomed their daughter, Birdie, on July 15 this year.
Liam said: “If I didn’t have Lois and Birdie, I think cancer would control my life. It would dictate what I do hour by hour, minute by minute, and I’d constantly be thinking about it. But I’ve got so many happy distractions in my life that I can take control back.”
Former supermarket area manager Liam was the fittest he had ever been when he began feeling unwell while playing golf with friends. Within three days, he noticed a “slight yellow tinge” to his eyeballs and skin, so he went to A&E at Lincoln County Hospital.
A CT scan showed a stricture in Liam’s bile duct, which doctors did not initially believe to be cancerous. Surgeons fitted Liam with a stent, and he waited for follow-up surgery to have the blockage in his bile duct removed.
However, an MRI scan revealed he had stage four cholangiocarcinoma — also known as bile duct cancer — with 12 inoperable tumours that had spread to his liver.
Liam said: “When they showed us the scan, it looked like a stone with very small speckles on it. The staff were ever so kind, but I was just a bit frustrated because I thought I was going to have surgery.”
Liam waited six “frustrating” weeks for chemotherapy, but the delay bought him time to arrange the last-minute sperm donation. He received a phone call confirming the appointment while on holiday in Rhodes.
He said: “It was the Nurture Fertility clinic in Nottingham saying that we could go ahead with IVF if I could get a sample to them before I started chemo. The clinic staff were brilliant; they said they’d open at 8am for me on Monday.
“Thank goodness our Sunday night flight wasn’t delayed. I got there in time to give a sample and then rushed to Lincoln [Hospital] to start chemo an hour later.”
Lois said Birdie’s birth was “amazing”. She added: “Birdie forces us to live and fight at the same time. She really is just the perfect baby. She sleeps six to seven hours at night, she’s breastfed perfectly from the beginning, and she’s really content.”
Despite initially responding well to cancer treatment, Liam suffered from side effects while on immunotherapy and had to be admitted to intensive care for an infection in his gallbladder in May.
Liam has since started another round of chemotherapy, due to further metastatic spread to his lung. Managing his terminal diagnosis is “pretty rough”, he said, but he is confident he can see the next six months through.
The family received “amazing” support from the charity AMMF, so Liam is sharing his story for their Voices of Cholangiocarcinoma film, which was due to be screened to MPs and NHS leaders on Wednesday. He is also taking on the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge on 27 October to raise funds for AMMF.
Liam added: “I just want to give other people who are living with the same cancer hope. Being here for the birth and being here for three months old, it’s just a win. There’s so much that I want to live for.”
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
