Social media connections are funding this couple’s in-vitro fertilization conception.
“Thank you once again to every single body that’s viewed one of our videos, gifted or donated…You’ve all been important in paying for this IVF,” said Mark Brown, 39, acknowledging his over 675,000 TikTok fans for helping him and wife Lucy, 40, raise over $6,000 toward their pricey pregnancy procedure.
And the British couple — who’s now at “100 percent fertilization” — is so grateful to their digital donors that they’re granting viewers the opportunity to help name their budding bun in the oven.
“It would be absolutely amazing to have another child, and we never thought social media would be the thing to make it happen,” the proud papa to be added. “And to say thank you to everyone who has viewed, we want to allow TikTok users to help us choose the baby’s name.”
Mark, a British digital content creator, and Lucy, a hairdresser, turned to TikTok for financial support at the beginning of the year after suffering seven miscarriages and one ectopic pregnancy over the last five years and shelling out over $20,000 of their own money toward in-vitro fertilization, also known as IVF.
The costly medical measure is a process by which a woman’s ovulation process is closely monitored and stimulated, begetting eggs that will be extracted from her ovaries and ultimately fertilized by a sperm in a laboratory.
Lucy had previously been sterilized after experiencing complications while birthing her and Mark’s first child, Sonny. But the pair decided to reverse the procedure and try for a second kid once Sonny became a teenager.
“[We were willing to] beg, borrow or steal,” to have another baby,” the Browns explained.
“We were both down, and really depressed about the situation,” Mark added of his and Lucy’s arduous IVF journey. “Going through all those miscarriages was a really horrible situation for the pair of us – every time it’s a devastating blow.”
Mark, who famously reviews food products and trendy gadgets online, began sharing their pregnancy plight with his cyber subscribers in February.
“I already had a following on TikTok, due to my reviews of supermarkets deals and food, so it occurred to me to use the platform to try and help us,” he said.
So, this spring the hopeful honeys applied to the TikTok Creator Fund — a money-making campaign that allows Tokkers who have over 10,000 followers that have amassed 100,000 views within 30 days of applying to the opportunity to get paid per the views their viral clips garner.
And their regular IVF journey updates, including everything from their fertilization consultations to their egg extraction procedure, have enticed hundreds of thousands of watchful eyes over the last 11 months — resulting in several decent payouts via TikTok.
“No one has given us a penny, but people have given their time and minutes to help us produce another life,” Mark said of the approximate $6,152 he and Lucy have received thanks to TikTok views. “We had some lovely people saying they put our videos on and let them play all night just to up the views.”
And when it comes to naming their incoming little one, Mark says he’ll let their TikTok community weigh in “within reason” by giving folks a choice of 10 names and allowing them to “whittle it down to one.”
