Tributes have been paid to a leading Canadian surrogacy champion after her sudden death was announced

After founding the JA Surrogacy Canada, Jennifer Allen helped more than 100 families have children.

Her family announced her sudden death at the age of just 36.

Jennifer was a surrogate, and according to her colleagues and friends, she believed everyone should be able to realise their dreams, but she could not help them all, which is the main reason she set up the agency.

The chief operating officer of the agency and Jennifer’s best friend, Michelle Avery, said in the local press: “Jennifer’s goal was that everyone who came to her, she was going to help them to build their families and do it with transparency, integrity and compassion.”

Jennifer’s family has not released the cause of her death, but they said she died peacefully in her sleep, which was unexpected.

One of the women she helped to become a mother said she was a force to be reckoned with.

Leah Lipkowitz is mum to six-month-old Olivia and said: “Jennifer was a force to be reckoned with. Her legacy lives on in the babies she helped bring to this earth. She left the world a different and better than she found it.”

Her funeral was held in Calgary a few days after her death.

She is survived by her husband, Phil Allen, and their two children, ten-year-old Abigail and nine-year-old son, Daniel.

Similar to the UK, surrogates cannot be paid for their services in Canada but are reimbursed for expenses.

Learn more about the surrogacy process:

A step by step guide through the surrogacy process, by Kirsten Mclennan