Jane Warr reports

A pub near her home in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, provided the unlikely venue for an impromptu news conference to answer questions about the pregnancy.

She refused to say when the baby was due or where it was conceived, but said she was as happy as anyone would be at the news.

Mrs Blood said the news of her pregnancy had leaked out to the press at a medical conference in Sweden last week.

"We do not think it was anyone being malicious, it was just a comment by someone who did not know the effect of what they were saying."

Stephen Blood: samples taken before he died

Accompanied by her parents and Stephen Blood's parents, she revealed she had suffered morning sickness.

"Obviously I am absolutely over the moon. I found out quite slowly that I was pregnant. It is not an immediate test in the way somebody might know if they were pregnant naturally.

"There were lots of hugs and kisses all round. We are all very pleased."

Robert Foreman, from the London Centre for Reproductive Medicine: "I'm not surprised she's pregnant"

Fertility treatment

On Saturday, a statement released by her father, Mike McMahon, said the pregnancy was the result of fertility treatment and was in its early stages.

In it, she said: "I find myself in the slightly embarrassing situation of being asked to confirm that I am pregnant to a newspaper before I tell my friends and all but my immediate family.

"I wish to confirm the good news and say that I am absolutely delighted even though I had wished to keep it quiet a little longer.

"I will perhaps give a longer interview later. I am sorry that I feel unable to say more at this moment in time.

"It is still very early days. I do hope you will understand. At this moment I have to consider the health of myself and my child before everything else."

Husband died from meningitis

Mrs Blood went abroad for the IVF treatment

Her campaign to have her husband Stephen's baby began after he contracted bacterial meningitis and fell into a coma in February 1995.

Two sperm samples were taken and put into the care of the Infertility Research Trust.

But after he died, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) refused to allow her to try to conceive, saying a dead man's sperm can only be used if he had given written consent.

The authority also refused her permission to take the samples abroad. Later, she is believed to have been accepted for treatment in Brussels.

In February, 1997, the Court of Appeal overturned a High Court ruling which endorsed the HFEA's decision.

It said the authority was wrong not to take proper account of European law, which gives every European citizen the right to receive medical services in another member state unless there are overriding public policy reasons against it.