Christmas is special for most families with children but for Jane Dewhurst and Mark Duxbury, this year it will be the one for which they hoped and dreamed.

The East Lancashire couple endured five years of heartache trying for a baby before turning to one of only two specialist fertility hospitals in the north for IVF treatment.

Their long and stressful wait for a baby was rewarded with six-month-old Zack in April.

And on Sunday they will be among 180 couples from across the north of England at a special Christmas party. All became parents this year after fertility treatment at St James Infirmary in Leeds. The annual event celebrates the year's successes.

Jane, of Marsden Court, Burnley, said: "It wasn't five years of every month waiting and seeing. We started off casually trying but, after two years, started to wonder if something was wrong."

A laparoscopy showed that Jane had blocked fallopian tubes and their only hope of having children was IVF.

After several months of counselling to make sure they were prepared for more waiting, and several weeks of injections for Jane, the couple had their first attempt, which involved implanting embryos into Jane's womb.

Against the odds, which give couples only a 25 per cent chance of success, the IVF worked.

Jane said: "It wasn't a nice experience and some of the injections became quite sore but, at the end of the day, you see the end result and you forget all about the rest of it. If we are prepared to go through it again - and we are - then it can't be that bad."

She added: "I know every child is special but to us Zack is extra special because of everything we had to go through to get him. We already have 63 Christmas cards from people who know just how important this Christmas is to us.

"Everyone knows the struggle we had to get him and what we have been through. But it is worth every second when you look at him."

The party will see 180 couples with their babies, including 35 sets of twins and one set of triplets, cram into a room at the University of Leeds to celebrate their first Christmas as families.

Bridget Batty, a former IVF patient who helped to organise the party, said: "The unit covers a very wide area so there will be lots of parents from East Lancashire there.

"We only invite the parents who have had babies in the last year, otherwise we couldn't accommodate them all".