A woman gave birth to a baby girl four years after she was wrongly told her husband was infertile.

Debra Sims, 38, fell pregnant after becoming the first woman to try a controversial new fertility treatment.

She is now nursing a healthy daughter named Shannon but has told how, during her ordeal, she had almost given up hope of having a baby, her marriage was close to collapse and on her darkest days she even contemplated suicide.

She and her husband Tony had been trying for four years for a baby but NHS fertility doctors had told them there was little hope.

With Mr Sims unemployed, there was no chance the couple could raise the thousands of pounds needed for private IVF treatment.

However, following years of heartache, Mrs Sims found the NHS had confused two files and wrongly told her husband, 12 years her junior, he was infertile.

She made the discovery after approaching Professor Ian Craft, of the Logan Centre for Assisted Reproduction in London, who she had heard wanted to run a controversial private project called Egg Giving.

She was told she could receive the treatment for free and agreed to be the first to try it.

Mrs Sims, of Brodrick Road, Eastbourne, said: "When I was told Tony was infertile I was devastated. I wanted children so much and being told I was unlikely to have any made me want to kill myself. My marriage almost broke up because of the pressures and I was a nervous wreck.

"I was disgusted to find out it was all a lie and that Tony had a healthy sperm count. We have been through hell for nothing."

The egg giving procedure means women donate a cycle of eggs, stimulated from the ovaries with drugs, to an infertile woman.

In return, the donor has IVF treatment, using a second cycle of her eggs, for £950 - seven times less than the average private cost and about half of that on the NHS.

Mrs Sims fell pregnant with the second cycle of eggs, using her husband's sperm.

She spoke of her joy at giving birth to Shannon, now 15 month old, yesterday when Prof Craft began offering the treatment to other woman at a cost of almost £6,000.

The Prof launched the treatment, trials of which began in 2001, following Mrs Sims' success.

Critics, including fertility expert Lord Winston, said it exploited women. Fertility support groups gave the scheme a cautious welcome, saying there was a dire shortage of so-called altruistic donors in Britain.

Mr and Mrs Sims, however, care little about the controversy. Mrs Sims said: "Shannon is our little miracle."