After five years of heartache trying to start a family, a couple have welcomed a baby son into the world thanks to budget fertility treatment they bought from Asda.
Carla and Damian Tapping have had the first 'Asda Baby', Louie, thanks to the supermarket's fertility drugs, £800 cheaper than similar drugs.
New mum Carla, 34, from Bicester, Oxfordshire, said: "Louie is here thanks to Asda, and a lot of fund raising from our families."
Carla, 34, and Damian, 41, are among thousands of desperate couples who have bought discount drugs from the chain – in an attempt to cut the huge cost of private fertility treatment.
She said: "We started trying for a baby and never thought it would be an issue. We were healthy and had good lifestyles."
Eventually they had a cycle of IVFon the NHS. Carla took daily injections before her eggs were harvested, fertilised and put back. But the treatment failed.
They faced a childless future as they could not afford the £6,000 needed for private treatment.
But by using the supermarket's cost-price drugs, they saved around £800 and Louie James was born on November 28, 2013 weighing a healthy 7lb 15oz.
Proud Damian, 41, said: "Thanks for Asda's assistance in completing our family."
An Asda spokesman said: 'Infertility continues to be the most common reason for women ages 20-45 to see their GP, after pregnancy itself, and affects 3.5 million people in the UK - the equivalent of one in six couples.
"Yet despite the acknowledgement of infertility as a serious medical condition, other retailers have failed to follow in Asda's pioneering footsteps - an initiative that can help customers save up to 60 per cent per cycle of IVF treatment by purchasing their drugs from Asda Pharmacy."
At Asda, one cycle of treatment will cost £1,346.34, compared to £2,151.86 at an independent pharmacy, a saving of £805.52. Superdrug will charge £1,686.71 per cycle and Boots, £2,131.89, a whopping 58 per cent more than Asda.