SITTING in his comfortable Southampton home reading about a Hampshire grandmother's search for an egg donor to help her have an IVF baby, David Seagrave felt he had to speak out.

He does not mince his words and he is vehement in his condemnation of Priscilla Eatwell and her quest to have another baby at the age of 56.

She and her husband, Don, 69, hit the headlines when they placed an advert in the Daily Echo looking for a woman to donate an egg to allow Priscilla to go ahead with IVF treatment in Italy.

While some may applaud the actions of the mother-of-three, whose youngest child was also created by IVF, David, 55, has launched an impassioned plea to the couple from High Street, Botley.

He says they are making a big mistake and their actions are simply selfish.

He contends that the child they are desperate to have will not appreciate what they have done in the coming years.

David reckons he knows what that child can expect because he has been through it himself.

"I don't want this child to go through what I went through - and I think he will if they go ahead with having this baby.

"They are far too old to be having a child - it's just not fair on the youngster.

"When you are growing up you never think your parents are going to die - but who will look after that child if something does happen to them?"

His parents were in their 40s when they conceived David. He was two years younger than his brother, Mike, now 57, but the two boys say the age gap between them and the older children in their family meant they never got on.

"My sister, Joan, who is now 73, had left home, married and had a child before I was even born.

"I was in the same age group as my sister's child and so she never treated me like a brother.

"My older brothers were in their teens when Mike and I were growing up and they didn't want much to do with us.

"There was no effort to ensure we bonded in childhood and now I have nothing to do with them. It was like we were two separate families born to the same parents.

"The only time we got together was for funerals - but now I doubt I will see them again.

"The only one I am still close to is Mike," said David, an artex specialist by trade.

"One of the worst parts about all this was that I never felt like I fitted in.

"I'm a generation out - I didn't bond with my siblings or their children.

"My age group is with the grandchildren but my peer group was with my parents' older children.

"This baby will go through the same feelings if they are not very careful."

David did enjoy a happy childhood, but it was coloured by the ill-health his father suffered.

He couldn't play football with his dad or go swimming with him. His father gave him love and a feeling of security but he was not able to join in with his son's games.

"My dad was ill for years. It didn't do his health a lot of good being in the Army fighting throughout the war.

"When he came out he worked as a dustman. He was breathing in ash all day and he ended up with emphysema.

"He then suffered a series of heart attacks and became quite ill.

"It didn't bother me that he couldn't play football with me - it was just important that he was there. I had that feeling of security you get when your parents are with you," he said.

Sadly, his father died when David was just 14. His childhood ended with the death of his father and the young lad felt the responsibility of the world fall on his shoulders when he agreed to his father's dying wish.

As he recalls what his father said as he lay in his hospital bed, David becomes choked with emotion.

"He grabbed hold of my hand and he made me promise that I would look after my mum - and I did until she died in 1980.

"My dad was 56 when he died and I was only 14 - but I had to act like a grown-up all my life.

It was only when David married and he had a family of his own that he really began to miss his father. He appreciated the sacrifices he had made - and now wishes that he had known him better.

"If I want to remember his face I have to look at a photo - I don't have an instant image of him.

"It's funny things as well, like not knowing how tall he was. I remember him being really tall but that was because I was child looking up at him. I have no perception of his physique at all.

"I wish I could have asked him about the war as well," he said.

David married Pat, now 51, in 1970 and is the proud father of four children. Ironically, there is a large age gap between his offspring, with David, aged 30, and Amber, 29, followed by Alex at 15 and Sam at 14.

"We have worked very hard to ensure the children are all very close. When David went off travelling we were all outside blubbing because we will miss him.

"We love our children and they love us - it is how a family should be," he said.

We still feel the need for another child

MORE than 30 years ago Priscilla Eatwell decided she had all the children she wanted.

But a snap decision at 24 to be sterilised proved to be the biggest mistake of her life.

Now the mother-of-three is battling against time to have another child.

Priscilla was sterilised after giving birth to two daughters in her early 20s.

"It was done in such a way that it was irreversible," she said.

"I had two children and I thought I had all the children I wanted - but you're very young then and you might make another decision years down the road."

Nineteen years later, Sophie was born to Priscilla and her second husband, Don, with IVF treatment using Priscilla's egg.

But the couple, of High Street, Botley, shied away from having a second baby straight afterwards because of money problems.

"I wanted to be financially secure before having another child but I always wanted another child after Sophie," added Priscilla.

When the couple decided to try IVF again they were advised that the quality of Priscilla's eggs had deteriorated due to her age.

So the search for an egg donor began.

The couple, who run a Bournemouth care centre, placed an advertisement in the Daily Echo - and Sharon Cave, a mother-of-two from Bournemouth, came forward as a prospective donor.