30226/1CHIPPENHAM NEWS EXCLUSIVE: A MOTHER told by doctors nine years ago she would be unlikely to ever have another baby, has discovered she is pregnant.

Michelle Thomas-Mewse, 35, manager of Sir Audley Arms in Chippenham, has stunned friends and family with news she will give birth in four months.

Michelle and her husband Mark, who is serving in the army, are expecting the baby on June 26.

The shock pregnancy has a special poignancy for her family after her brother Craig Dicker was killed in a car crash near Trowbridge in July 2000.

Doctors feared an infection suffered during the birth of her first son Ben, now 15, meant she would never be able to conceive again. Tests nine years ago gave her only a 20 per cent chance of having another child.

She said: "After Ben I wanted lots more children. But nothing was happening and I went to the doctors and they told me the last thing I wanted to hear.

"I went through a lot emotionally and got it into my head it wasn't to be."

She said: "I put my condition down to stress but then I started being ill in the morning.

"I took two pregnancy tests with a good friend of mine. It was all quite emotional. We sat down and cried. I just couldn't take it all in.

"I had tried to block out the fact I couldn't have any kids, then this happens.

"It was a complete shock and it wasn't until I had the first scan it sunk in.

"Friends have been very supportive and my family is over the moon."

Doctors have told Michelle they are not anticipating any problems for her or the child.

She said: "When I told the doctor about the tests he was just as shocked as I was."

Her son Ben, a pupil at Sheldon School, has spent some of his pocket money on new baby clothes.

He said: "My mum told me the name she wanted to use and I thought it is all right."

Mrs Thomas-Mewse's brother Craig, 23, died in a car crash five years ago on the A350 at West Ashton near Trowbridge.

The driver, Lt Col Giles Stibbe, was convicted of dangerous driving and fined £750 for his involvement in the accident that also killed five-year-old Calne schoolgirl Tamara-Jayne Sheppard and 21-year-old Adam Lumley.

Mrs Thomson-Mewse said: "We did discuss trying to rearrange the letters in Craig's name to create a new name.

"But it's a blessing this has happened and I think this is his way of saying to his family it is time to move on."

Grandmother-to-be Sheri Dicker, 57, of Devizes, said: "It's like God has given us hope for the future. It is a miracle.

"When you have a great tragedy in your life you can't blank out what has happened, you just have to learn to live with it, but you reach a point where you have to go for closure and draw a line under what has happened and that is what we've done."