A mum who was trolled for posting videos of a huge stack of Christmas presents she bought for her one-year-old daughter, has shared the heartbreaking reason behind the extravagance.
Sarah Bouasker, 29, was targeted with dozens of hurtful comments after admitting the huge pile of presents she'd bought for her baby came nowhere close to fitting under the tree.
Strangers and family members said Sarah, from Chester, Cheshire, was going to overwhelm her 18-month-old daughter Alaya come Christmas Day and said she didn't need so many toys.
The mum forked out more than £1,000 in toys alone, along with bundles of clothes - and admitted she was still picking up bits now. She claimed she couldn't bring herself to count how many presents her daughter would have to open.
Images of the huge stack showed it reached from floor to ceiling, and has taken her weeks to even get half-wrapped.
However, Sarah said there's a very good reason for lavishing her daughter with piles of presents.
The mum-of-one was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect and underwent surgery when she was just 18-months-old.
In 2017, aged 24, she was told a valve in her heart needed replacing with a mechanical valve, and the medication she would need to take to have the operation would mean she would never be able to have children.
Devastated, Sarah begged doctors to help her - and medics managed to temporarily repair her heart valve to give her just enough time to fall pregnant and give birth to Alaya in May 2021.
But her latest check up shows that Sarah's condition has deteriorated and she will now need to be fitted with a mechanical valve.
And as medics say they don't know what her future will look like, she says she is determined to make every Christmas as special as possible for her family.
Sarah, who formerly worked in a nursery before her condition forced her to stop work, said: "I have had so many comments from people telling me I am spoiling her, but those people don't need to worry about whether they will have another Christmas.
"I don't know what's round the corner, but I do know I want to create as many special memories with her and document them so she will always have them to look back on.
"We do special photoshoots for Easter, Halloween and Valentine's day too.
"I can't wait to see her face light up on Christmas morning when she sees them all under the tree.
"I just want to make her happy and really celebrate every occasion."
Sarah said that when she was told she needed surgery that would stop her from having children, she was "absolutely broken".
She described how she broke down in the hospital.
While surgeons said they would do their best to temporarily repair her valve to enable her to have a baby, she said she was grateful - but knew it wouldn't last forever.
Sarah has bought adorable Alaya everything from a scooter to jigsaws and dozens of toys of her favourite characters.
She said: "I'm planning to do a toy rotation so she doesn't get overwhelmed by them all.
"I'll put them all under the tree on Christmas day but I will only give her the ones I know she will be most excited by then.
"She doesn't have a lot of family buying for her, just us, so she probably won't get much more."
Sarah said when she put the presents all in one room, she was "taken aback" by how many there were.
"I just want to give her the best Christmas I possibly can, and I don't see anything wrong with that.
"People who judge me should take time to think that they don't know everybody's situation - do your own child's Christmas how you want to and let everyone else get on with theirs."
