Out of their darkest moment, a Greek couple managed to make a new start with a baby born this week. Doing so meant using one of Cristina Rapti‑Tzelepi’s decades-old embryos and racing to beat a government deadline.

Just months after their 21‑year‑old son died in a road crash in October, Rapti‑Tzelepi, 54, and her husband made the decision to pursue another attempt using an embryo frozen for 22 years. Rapti-Tzelepi was running up against the Greek government’s 54-year age limit for women to complete in vitro fertilisation procedures and secure approval from a national authority.