A WIDOW who won a landmark legal battle allowing her a last chance to have her husband’s child has spoken of her battle for victory and her hopes for a baby.

Samantha Jefferies, 42, had to go to court to win the right to use embryos stored during IVF treatment she and her husband Clive had been through.

Her husband Clive, a Falklands War veteran, died suddenly of a brain haemorrhage in April 2014 at the age of 51.

She said she had been thinking about whether the baby would look like her husband and share his love of the outdoors.

Although the thought of raising a child, possibly twins, on her own was daunting, Mrs Jefferies said they would be well looked after by her and her husband’s friends.

Writing for a national Sunday newspaper, Mrs Jefferies said: “And when they grow up, I’ll tell them about their brave, gentle father, and the extraordinary chain of events that brought them to us.”

Mrs Jefferies, from Winchelsea, was horrified to be told by the IVF clinic the eggs the couple had in storage needed to be “left to perish” as the time period for holding them had passed.

The couple had initially agreed on a 10 year storage but this had been shortened to two years, without their agreement, because NHS funding had expired.

She said: “I couldn’t get my head around it – my husband had just died.

“How could they tell me our embryos, half mine, half his, could now be left to perish?”

Mrs Jefferies said she had still been in shock and not ready to consider having a baby but she knew it was important to press ahead with action because she might want one in the future, even if her husband was no longer around.

A declaration issued in the High Court last week saying the amendment to the storage period was "not valid" and the embryos, instead of being allowed to perish, can still lawfully be stored and used.

Mrs Jefferies said the relief was enormous and after “two years of hell” she had been given the chance to finally use the embryos.

She said she needed a year to recover and knew time was not on her side but she wanted to try one more time for a baby.