PGT will allow us to start a family without the fear of passing on a rare heart condition

Hannah and Charlie have made a name for themselves on social media as ‘That Travel Couple’, sharing their ever increasing adventures across continents. But more than that, the couple has candidly shared some of their more personal experiences, including Hannah’s cancer diagnosis in 2022 and Charlie’s rare heart condition that led them to TFP Oxford Fertility.

Hannah & Charlie’s story

Aged just 15, Charlie, now 26, and his family discovered he had a rare gene mutation known as RYR2 when he suffered a cardiac arrest at home whilst playing FIFA. His Dad, who was working from home at the time, was able to perform life-saving CPR whilst they waited for the emergency services to respond. 

“I don’t remember the episode myself, but my Dad told me that four ambulances and a helicopter arrived to help me that day,” says Charlie. 

Whilst recovering in hospital, Charlie was fitted with an internal defibrillator which monitors the rhythm of his heartbeat and can administer a shock in the event of another cardiac episode - a necessary and lifelong precaution. 

“There was either a genetic link or it was just bad luck!”

Though an understandably scary time for Charlie and his family, his experience later led to answers for his Mum too who had experienced a similar event five years previously. Within six months, both Charlie and his Mum had been diagnosed with the same gene mutation, suggesting a genetic link. 

With this knowledge, Charlie’s younger brother was tested and found to be in the clear. However, for Charlie, the news that his condition was genetic meant that there would be a 50% chance the mutation would be passed onto any children he might have in the future.

At the time, Charlie didn’t spend too much time dwelling on this fact as children weren’t an immediate part of his future. But like most other boys his age, Charlie was an avid sports player and the condition posed the biggest knock to some of his biggest passions. 

“At the time, I was playing football for the Bristol Rovers, rugby for the Hornets as well as county golf and county cricket. Unfortunately, my diagnosis meant that I was no longer able to participate in contact sport so I had to give a lot of that up,” explains Charlie. 

Despite this being a devastating revelation for teenage Charlie, he decided to focus all of his efforts on playing golf and since the age of 19 has enjoyed a career as a professional golfer. 

“Since meeting Hannah, I have the mindset of doing as much as I possibly can.”

A year after his diagnosis, Charlie met Hannah, also 26, whilst they were both studying at college. The pair were married in 2022 and now spend their days travelling the globe, documenting their journeys and sharing travelling hacks and tips on their Instagram account, ‘That Travel Couple’. 

“I travelled quite a lot when I was younger with my parents so when Charlie and I got a bit older I pushed him into travelling with me a bit more and we soon discovered that there was more to life than coming home from work and sulking in the British rain,” says Hannah. 

But the decision to commit to a lifetime of travelling came after Hannah’s diagnosis and treatment for stage four non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes, in 2022. 

“We travelled a little before I was diagnosed but after my treatment finished it gave us a bit of a kick up the bum and made us realise that life might be shorter than either of us realised and we want to make the most of it whilst we can.

“Our travel bucket list is never ending but we’ll keep on going until we have a reason to stop!” 

“Can you imagine having a child and essentially just waiting to see if they had an episode?”

Despite understanding the implications of Charlie’s condition, it also wasn’t until Hannah had completed her cancer treatment that the concept of a genetic counsellor was raised with the couple. 

“My cancer treatment included chemotherapy so we were unsure of the effects of this on my fertility. But my oncologist was also aware of Charlie’s condition so it was her that suggested we meet with a genetic counsellor to discuss our options for conceiving,” explains Hannah. 

After being referred by Charlie’s GP, the couple met with a genetic counsellor in 2024 where they learned about their three options for starting a family. 

“We were told we could try and conceive naturally and then wait and see if our child had an episode. That was the last thing we wanted and we couldn’t imagine waiting for the day they had a sudden cardiac arrest,” shares Hannah. 

“Our second option was to have an amniocentesis to check whether they had the mutation during pregnancy because at least this way we could be carefully monitored.” 

The couple’s third option was pre-implantation genetic testing, specifically pre-implantation genetic testing for monogenic disorders (PGT-M), carried out on embryos created during IVF. 

“At the time, PGT wasn’t available on the NHS and testing was only available up in Edinburgh,” explains Charlie. “Hannah was still going through chemotherapy so starting a family was low down on the priority list.” 

But by the time Hannah finished her cancer treatment, NHS funding for PGT was now in place and the couple revisited the idea. 

“It sounded a bit like voodoo magic to begin with but once it was properly explained to us we were like ‘why would you not do that?’ If it meant our child would be perfectly healthy we were willing to give it a go,” says Hannah. 

“99% of the time we were able to speak to an actual person which made a world of difference.”

After securing NHS funding for three rounds of IVF with PGT, the next step in Hannah and Charlie’s journey was to decide on a clinic for their treatment. Initially, they opted for a clinic in Birmingham as it was the closest to their home in Bristol. 

“We had an initial appointment at this clinic in Birmingham but neither of us felt confident. Having both been in medical settings for prolonged periods of time, I think we have a good idea of what to look for and this wasn’t it,” shares Hannah. 

After reassessing their options, the couple pivoted to TFP Oxford Fertility and immediately felt as though they were in good hands. 

“The biggest thing for me was being able to talk to an actual human being when I called the clinic. Even at a hospital you have to go through a million switchboards to get to the right department!

“But more than that, no question ever seemed stupid or silly to them. Every question was answered clearly and with compassion and that put us at ease. With anything medical, you have to put a lot of trust in complete strangers and we always felt reassured and no less important than any other patient in there at the time,” recalls Hannah. 

She adds, “I also love the online portal - I’m a bit of a control freak so I like knowing that all of the information is there in one place if I’ve forgotten something or want to double check it.”

“We had the same nurse at both egg collections which put us at ease.”

Hannah and Charlie began their first cycle of IVF in June 2025. As no stranger to medication and injections, Hannah feels fortunate to have found the whole process relatively seamless. 

“I learned a few tricks during my cancer treatment so we’d ice the injection site beforehand to help numb the area,” she shares. 

“We found all the leaflets and instruction videos really helpful and the staff were incredibly supportive too. They called us regularly to ask how we were finding the injections and kept us informed throughout the whole journey.”

At Hannah’s egg collection, nine eggs were retrieved from her ovaries which resulted in two potential embryos. A biopsy was taken from each embryo and sent to the Cooper Genomics Laboratory in London for PGT-M. The couple’s embryos were frozen and safely stored whilst they awaited the results. Unfortunately, neither embryo was considered viable as one contained Charlie’s gene mutation and the other was found to be chromosomally abnormal. 

“Naturally, we were a bit disappointed with the outcome,” confesses Hannah. “It felt like we’d done all of that work and weren’t any closer to our end goal.

“But what was really reassuring was that when it came to our second round, our consultant talked us through what we could do differently to improve our chances. It wasn’t a case of ‘we’ll do the same again and hope for the best.”

By October 2025, the couple were back at TFP Oxford Fertility for their second cycle. It was agreed that Hannah’s hormone dosage would be increased as a means of encouraging more follicles to grow so that more eggs would be mature enough for collection. 

“I was a bit nervous to begin with, and I definitely felt the bloat more so the second time, but it clearly worked as during my second retrieval we got 23 eggs!”

This time, Hannah and Charlie had four potential embryos and the same process for PGT-M was followed once again. At the end of their wait, the couple was relieved to hear that three of the four embryos were free of Charlie’s gene mutation and chromosomally normal and could remain frozen until they were ready to use them. 

“We tried to remain positive throughout.”

With three healthy embryos waiting for them when they choose to start a family, Hannah and Charlie both feel excited about their future. 

“There are still a lot of unknowns, for example, we’re still contemplating whether to have a medicated or natural embryo transfer, but mostly we feel reassured that the hard work is now over.

“We feel super fortunate to be in these circumstances and remain positive about what the future will bring.”