In most places, high-tech fertility treatment is an option only for families with considerable savings.

        But in Greater Cincinnati, a few families a year get financial help from a charity called the Madeleine and Jerome Gordon Gift of Life Foundation.

John and Tina Mulhollen and their daughter, Kathryn (Brandi Stafford photo) | ZOOM |

        The program was created five years ago by a gift to the University of Cincinnati. The foundation sifts through more than 100 applications a year to select five to 10 couples for financial assistance for fertility treatment.

        “I'm not aware of any other program like this in the country,” said Dr. Michael Thomas, co-director of UC's Center for Reproductive Health, which was recently merged with a program at Christ Hospital.

        Couples pay part of the bill, often several hundred dollars. The foundation pays a negotiated amount to the UC program.

        So far, the program has produced 12 babies. The first was Kathryn Mulhollen, born Aug. 24, 1997.

        “We had been trying for two years and had pretty much given up,” said Kathryn's mother, Tina Mulhollen. “Then my mom saw an article about the foundation, and I basically poured my heart out to Madeleine.”

        The Mulhollens desperately wanted a child but didn't want to give up the house in Loveland where they hoped to raise that child. The foundation made it possible, Mrs. Mulhollen said.

        The program is named after a Mount Adams couple who had tried for years to conceive without success. The couple later decided to help other couples.

        For information, write to the Madeleine and Jerome Gordon Gift of Life Foundation, P.O. Box 6945, Cincinnati 45206.

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