The mother who gave birth to a frozen family

So he and his girlfriend Sally decided that their only chance of having a family was for his sperm to be frozen.

He survived the treatment, they married and later started trying for a family.

After two failed IVF attempts, Mrs Woods became pregnant on their third try - 11 years after her husband's sperm had first been frozen - and gave birth to their son Matthew, now five.

Last year, the couple decided to try for a second baby with the same sperm - which had now been frozen for more than 16 years. Their daughter, Annabel, arrived in May, weighing 4lb 2oz.

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Mrs Woods, 40, a charity fundraiser, from Wolverhampton, said: "People are amazed when we tell them that both Matthew and Annabel have been born after freezing Andrew's sperm so long ago.

"It really is a miracle. It's amazing that we were able to conceive twice after all those years. Sixteen years in a test tube is a long time."

When they met in May 1990, Mr Woods, a human resources manager for an industrial firm, had just been diagnosed with testicular cancer after finding a lump in his right testicle.

The lump was removed and Mr Woods, who is now 40, then underwent an intensive five months of chemotherapy. Before that he had decided to have his sperm frozen.

The couple were dealt a further blow when a few weeks after the end of his chemotherapy, scans showed secondary tumours in his stomach. He underwent an operation to remove five tumours. The cancer has never returned.

The couple married in May 1992. Three years later they went on the waiting list for fertility treatment.

Doctors told the couple that because the sperm had been frozen for so long, normal IVF treatment would not work and that their only chance was a pioneering procedure that involved injecting a single sperm into an egg.

After two failed attempts, Mrs Woods had two embryos implanted in her womb in April 2001 and became pregnant with twins. She lost one baby almost immediately, but the other survived.

In January 2002, Matthew was born at the Princess Royal Maternity Hospital in Glasgow, where the couple were then living, weighing 8lb 4oz.

Last year, at the Midland Fertility Services clinic, Mrs Woods underwent another attempt to get pregnant using her husband's frozen sperm. Two embryos were put back and two weeks later she discovered she was pregnant, again with a single baby.

"We were so thrilled, we couldn't believe it had worked first time," she said.

Annabel was born eight weeks early at New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton.

Mrs Woods said: "It was amazing to hold my daughter in my arms. It's been a long road to have both of our children, but it's all been worth it when I look at them both.

"Matthew is just about to start reception class at school and he's such a bright and happy little boy - we are so proud of him too. There were times when we never thought it would be successful and it would have been easy to give up hope. We feel very lucky."

A spokesman for the clinic said: "It is extremely unusual for sperm to be frozen for this long and then go on to be used in a successful pregnancy.

"Because the sperm was frozen when this couple were so young, it meant that she was still of child-bearing age all these years later."

The world record for a live birth after freezing sperm is 21 years. The baby was born at St Mary's hospital in Manchester in 2002.