A surrogate mother is believed to have become pregnant for the eighth time after agreeing to come out of “retirement” to help another family.

Jill Hawkins is said to be ecstatic after discovering one of two embryos implanted into her body had started to grow.

Miss Hawkins, 45, from Brighton, had said she would have no more children following the birth of her seventh surrogate baby in 2006.

However she agreed to help a professional couple in their early 30s when she discovered the wife, a mother-of-one, was unable to become pregnant again because of drugs she had to take after a lung transplant.

It is the first time Miss Hawkins is carrying a child that has not developed from her own eggs.

All the previous children she has given away have been conceived using her own eggs and artificially inseminated sperm from the father.

Miss Hawkins, who will be paid £12,000 by the couple, says there is a chance she may be carrying twins.

When the baby, or babies, are born, she will hand them over to the parents while still in hospital.

She says she has no desire to keep a baby and will continue to act as a surrogate.

Miss Hawkins, a legal secretary, is the most prolific surrogate mother in Britain.