THE breakthrough decision by MPs to back so-called ‘three-parent IVF’ has come too late to help Sharon Bernardi, but she hopes it will prevent others from going through similar heartache.

Tragically, the 48-year-old from Springwell, Tyne and Wear, has lost all seven of her children to mitochondrial disease, the life-threatening condition which researchers at Newcastle University want to make history

That’s why, since North-East scientists announced that they had developed a pioneering technique to prevent the transmission of mitochondrial disease between generations in 2010, Mrs Bernardi has been a staunch supporter of Professor Doug Turnbull’s team.

Last night Mrs Bernardi described how she felt about the vote by MPs to allow the controversial new form of IVF treatment to go ahead.

She said: “I am absolutely thrilled. Overwhelmed... I am really over the moon for everybody in Prof Turnbull’s team."

In Mrs Bernardi’s case the genetic defect was passed down to her by her mother.

She added: “I wasn’t diagnosed until after my fifth baby had died. No one knew why it was happening, they had no answers. I would get pregnant again and just pray this time would be different.”

After her third child died, doctors began a genetic investigation to try to understand what was happening, but without initial success.

Ms Bernardi’s fears were confirmed when her mother revealed – for the first time – that she had had three stillbirths before giving birth to Sharon.

After further investigation it was found that members of Sharon’s extended family had lost another eight children in total.

The first six of Mrs Bernardi’s children died within hours of being born but after her diagnosis the doctors were better prepared for her next pregnancy.

For the first 48 hours after he was born her new son, Edward, was given drugs and blood transfusions to prevent a form of blood poisoning known as lactic acidosis that had killed his siblings.

He survived but at the age of four he started having seizures. That was when doctors finally got to the root cause of the family’s problems.

They diagnosed Edward as having Leigh’s disease, a disorder that interferes with the smooth working of the nervous system. It is caused by defects in the mother’s mitochondria, the power plant of cells.

Even though Mrs Bernardi and her husband Neil were told Edward was likely to die before he was five he made it to adulthood, dying at 21 in 2011.

The suffering of her children made her determined to do all she could to support the Newcastle University team in their bid to allow ‘three-parent IVF’ to go ahead.

She added: “I had to bury seven babies. It’s not what a mother’s supposed to do. I just wanted to prevent the pain I had happening to other couples."