Ellidy Pullin’s race to retrieve Olympian Alex ‘Chumpy’ Pullin’s sperm after his death

With only a 36-hour window to retrieve her late partner’s sperm, Ellidy Pullin has spoken about the numerous obstacles she faced to ultimately conceive their daughter, Minnie, through IVF. LISTEN NOW

The widow of champion snowboarder Alex ‘Chumpy’ Pullin has opened up about her emotional journey to conceive their daughter, Minnie, through IVF using her late partner’s sperm.

A Gold Coast model, Ellidy Pullin shared her heart-wrenching story on her podcast ‘Darling, Shine’ during a candid conversation with friends – who brought up the initial idea of sperm retrieval – and Andrew Davidson, the doctor who performed the operation.

In the podcast, Ellidy, 30, recounted the events that unfolded after her partner of more than eight years drowned while spearfishing off the Gold Coast’s Palm Beach in July 2020, and spoke with the people who made the retrieval of the Olympian’s sperm possible.

Alex Chumpy Pullin, a two-time snowboarder cross world champion, drowned on the Gold Coast in July, 2020. Picture: Chris Hocking

Ellidy revealed that she and Chumpy, 32, had been trying for a baby prior to his death, which led to the decision to retrieve his sperm in the hours following his passing.

“My late love Chumpy passed away, and for those of you who know my story, we actually retrieved his sperm in the hours after his passing, cause we had been trying for a baby,” she said.

With the help of Dr Davidson, an obstetrician, gynaecologist, and infertility expert based in Robina on the Gold Coast, Ellidy underwent In vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment, and six months later was pregnant with Minnie following her second round of IVF.

The process of retrieving Chumpy’s sperm was initiated by Ellidy’s close friend and Australian pro surfer, Laura Enever, who first brought up the idea and started researching the procedure.

Olympic snow boarder Alex ‘Chumpy’ Pullin and his partner, Ellidy Vlug. Picture: Justin Lloyd

There was a limited window of 36 hours to perform the sperm retrieval, which added to the urgency and emotional intensity of the situation.

“We started looking into it, and we worked out there wasn’t a lot of time, it was 36 hours or something that it had to be … deadline to have the procedure done,” she said.

“And I was like ‘I can’t bring this up right now’ – and I didn’t know how to approach the situation but knew that it had to happen soon.”

“So the next morning I get up – and I’ve called Chloe (Fisher) and been like ‘you guys have to think about this, you can do sperm retrieval but it has to happen today’.”

Ellidy’s podcast co-host, Chloe Fisher, who played a key role in finding an IVF clinic, recounted her experience of calling multiple clinics before finally connecting with Gabe, a receptionist at Dr Davidson’s clinic.

Ellidy Pullin’s daughter with her late husband, Australian snowboarding world champion, Alex ‘Chumpy’ Pullin. Ms Pullin announced that she had a daughter, Minnie Alex Pullin, on October 25, 2021. Picture: Instagram

“I seriously googled IVF Clinics Gold Coast, I just went from the top of the list, and started working down the list,” she said.

Chloe called four IVF clinics, all of which declined to help.

“So I went down the line, and the first four were just hard no’s and they didn’t want a bar of it,” she said.

“And then number five, this beautiful woman named Gabe answered.”

Gabe, who had lost her brother in a similar accident, empathised with Ellidy’s situation and offered help.

With only 10 hours left in the sperm retrieval window, Dr Davidson successfully performed the procedure in just 30 minutes, despite never having done post-mortem sperm retrieval before.

“It was very emotional and daunting,” Dr Davidson said.

Dr Davidson later said that only one per cent of the sperm collected was viable, possibly because of the circumstances surrounding Chumpy’s death.

“So you might get millions of millions of sperm in the tissue, but most of them are going to be dead by that stage, and particularly it was over 36 hours so I knew the chances are that most of the sperm would not be viable,” he said.

“I was thinking we were really pushing the boundary, which we were.”

Despite the low viability rate, Dr Davidson added that Chumpy being in a wetsuit may have helped the overall outcome of the retrieval.

“There might be something to do with the circumstances of his death that they were preserved a bit longer,” he said.

“He was still in his wetsuit. And that may have preserved his temperature a little bit longer than you would normally.”

Ellidy gave birth to Minnie Alex Pullin on October 25, 2021 – 15 months after Chumpy’s passing.

As she shares her story, Ellidy hopes to spread awareness and help others who may face similar challenges in their journey to parenthood.

Originally published as Ellidy Pullin’s race to retrieve Olympian Alex ‘Chumpy’ Pullin’s sperm after his death