Why UK's first child born following womb transplant gives hope to us all

Baby Amy Isabel was born after her aunt, Amy Purdie, donated her womb to her younger sister Grace Davidson

Once there would have been no way that Grace Davidson would have been able to have a child, as she was born with a rare condition, called Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser syndrome, in which women have an underdeveloped or missing womb.

However, the 36-year-old Londoner has now given birth to the first child to be born following a womb transplant after the organ was donated by her older sister Amy Purdie, 42, who lives in Scotland and is mother to two girls aged ten and six. Baby Amy Isabel was named after her aunt and also a surgeon who helped perfect the technique.

Grace and Angus Davidson (front) with the hospital team following the birth of baby Amy Isabel Davidson (Picture: Womb Transplant UK) | PA

"It was just hard to believe she was real. I knew she was ours, but it's just hard to believe,” said the new mum. "... It sort of feels like there's a completeness now where there maybe wasn't before."

Advances in medical science and surgical techniques seem to keep making the impossible possible. Previous generations would have been dumbfounded by what can now be achieved. And every step forward brings hope for those suffering from various different conditions that theirs will be next.