A couple who lost three children in a house blaze have been told the NHS cannot help them start a new family - because one of their sons survived.

Darren and Judith Braine are desperate for another child after the tragedy at their home.

Mrs Braine, 31, had a sterilisation operation after the birth of their fourth child.

But after the appalling tragedy at their home in Widdrington Station, Northumberland, she now wants to reverse the process.

But she has been told it cannot be done on the health service because their youngest son, Lewis, was pulled out of the blaze alive.

The two-year-old's brothers and sisters Leah, six, Darren, five, and Demi, three, died when a blaze - probably caused by a faulty electric fire - swept through the house in March last year, trapping them in a bedroom.

They have slowly recovered from the tragedy and would now like to try for a brother or sister for Lewis.

But Mrs Braine was told she would have to pay £1,000 to have it done privately, a fee they cannot afford.

She said: "We are devastated, I really wanted it for Lewis so he can have a brother or sister."

A spokesman for the Northumberland Care Trust, which is responsible for setting criteria infertility treatment, said they could not comment on individual cases, but added: "There is an appeals procedure, we regularly look at the criteria and there is to be a review this year on infertility treatment."

The guidelines make clear that demand for infertility treatment considerably exceeds available resources and state that NHS funding will not be available for the reversal of sterilisation except in limited circumstances including "the death of all children in the partnership."