Tragedy brought them together, but Chloe Fisher and Ellidy Pullin have become the strongest friends, and some would say they are even as close as sisters!
After losing her soulmate Alex ‘Chumpy’ Pullin in a fishing accident, Ellidy made the tough decision to collect his sperm and conceive the baby of their dreams. When undergoing the second round of IVF, their miracle child Minnie Alex Pullin was born in 2021.
Meanwhile, Chloe was dealing with her own fertility problems after grieving her miscarriages with her partner Paul Fisher.
Despite its grim nature, the girls bonded over their struggles.
“We wouldn’t share our problems with others as much as we would confide in each other and we felt like we were each other’s therapist,” Ellidy revealed.
“We’re kind of codependent on each other. We’ve just become like this weird, blended family and I guess in that we’ve created this massive community that is really invested in our story together.
“We’re just literally like sisters.”
Ellidy confessed their intimate moments together, crying in the car after Chloe went through a miscarriage. But their pain is not something a lot of people understand and in these intimate moments together Chloe and Ellidy realised they had an opportunity.
And so their podcast Darling, Shine! was created to destigmatise speaking about the struggles of fertility and miscarriage via personal stories and medical experts.
“[Our] purpose is to educate women and men about IVF, infertility and just womanhood as a whole,” Chloe revealed.
“We’re like a soundboard for people that don’t have a voice.”
Chloe reveals miscarriages are most likely to happen within the first four weeks in the first trimester and in this time, the planning and excitement begins. While she was hesitant to share her story of her first miscarriage to the world, she was flooded with support.
“I’m not gonna say its been easy, but I’ve had this platform on my podcast where I’ve been able to talk about it,” Chloe said.
“I was quite hesitant at the start… the moment I put it out there on my social media, the floodgates opened and I really realised how common it was for women to suffer in silence. That’s where my purpose has come from.
“I want to help other women and I want to be able to give them a voice and talk about what I’m going through. I don’t feel alone.”