A Story of Courage, Determination, and the Power of Love!

A special thank you to our guest speaker, Catherine (Cathy) Wheatley, for sharing her courageous and life-changing journey to motherhood, and for reflecting on how her personal experience led her to advocate for herself, her family, and thousands of other families across Ireland. Her remarkable story is also the subject of a Netflix short documentary. 

Cathy’s deeply personal and powerful account revealed that we are capable of really hard things when we maintain perseverance, the “why” of our pursuits, and determination to successfully overcome seemingly impossible barriers.  

The Zoom recording of this compelling program is below.

Key Takeaways 

On Creating a Family

Cathy was deeply committed to building a family. She shared the heartbreak of a failed pregnancy and medical complications that left her unable to carry and deliver a child. Her story reminds us that while we may have assumptions about how life will unfold, unexpected roadblocks can require us to reimagine the path forward. A fulfilling life is not always found in the way we first envisioned, but often in our willingness to consider new possibilities.

On Courage in Action

Cathy made a decision that required extraordinary courage and faith. After war broke out in Ukraine, she left her family and traveled into a dangerous and uncertain situation to find Ivanna, the surrogate who was carrying her two children. She did so not knowing how she would locate Ivanna, or whether she would safely return to her husband and children. Cathy refused to accept “no” as the end of the story, yet she moved through every challenge with kindness toward the people she encountered. In the end, that combination of determination and grace helped lead her to Ivanna.

Her Lesson

Lead with kindness, be guided by love, and hold fast to your convictions.

On Discovering and Living Our Purpose

Life’s most difficult experiences can also reveal a deeper sense of purpose. Cathy discovered that under Irish law, she had no legal rights to her children; instead, her husband and Ivanna, the surrogate mother, were recognized as the children’s legal parents. In response, she transformed personal pain into public purpose. By bringing families together, raising awareness, and advocating for reform, she helped drive passage of the Assisted Human Reproduction Act 2024, which established a legal framework for surrogacy in Ireland.

What Her Journey Can Teach All of Us

Cathy reflected on the way women are often judged when they lead with heart, sometimes being labeled as overly emotional or impulsive. Her experience offered a different perspective: that there is real strength in leading with heart. As Cathy shared, “There is something special about a woman’s heart. And it’s okay to lead with your heart and not your head.” 

About the Speaker

Catherine (Cathy) Wheatley, National Advocate & Spokesperson, Training and Policy Engagement 

Cathy is an Irish surrogacy advocate and mother whose work campaigning for surrogacy law reform in Ireland is rooted in her own deeply personal journey of loss, resilience, and determination.  

She is one of the mothers featured in Two Mothers (2024), a short documentary commissioned through the Netflix Documentary Talent Fund, and premiered internationally at the Newport Beach International Film Festival.  

The film tells the extraordinary story of her journey into war-torn Ukraine and the risks she took to rescue the surrogate who carried her twins and bring her family to safety in rural Ireland. 

Today, Cathy speaks openly about her family’s journey and the realities faced by families who must travel abroad to build their families through surrogacy. Through her advocacy, she calls for compassionate and clear surrogacy legislation in Ireland that protects children, recognizes intended parents, and respects the role of surrogates, and has helped to raise both national and international awareness of surrogacy and family rights. 

She is especially driven by work that combines lived experience with policy influence to deliver meaningful, lasting change. 

Learn more about Cathy’s efforts to help: 

• Build community by organizing: Irish Families Through Surrogacy 

• Pass legislation: Her efforts helped support the passage of The Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Act 2024, which establishes a comprehensive regulatory framework for assisted human reproduction (AHR) in Ireland, including licensing, oversight, and standards for treatment and research.