Momentous milestone for
IT’S EXACTLY 40 YEARS SINCE LOUISE BROWN’S MUM MADE HISTORY THANKS TO BREAKTHROUGH FERTILITY TREATMENT AT OLDHAM HOSPITAL
FORTY years ago this week, Lesley Brown became pregnant with the baby she desperately wanted thanks to a medical breakthrough that changed fertility treatment forever.
On November 10, 1977, in a hospital near Oldham an embryo was taken from a petri dish and implanted into Lesley – making her longed-for daughter Louise the firstever ‘test tube baby,’ and signalling a landmark moment in history.
The pioneering technique at Dr Kershaw’s Cottage Hospital in Royton was the work of embryologist Jean Purdy, and paved the way for thousands of babies born through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) to parents who would not otherwise be able to conceive.
But Louise says her family received a flood of shocking hate mail from people suspicious of the technique that allowed her mother to have the baby she had yearned for nine years, and has called for other families to be shielded from the abuse they experienced.
Even today she is subjected to hurtful comments by internet trolls.
Louise, a clerk at a freight company, revealed: “People put cruel and ill-informed comments on the internet just about whenever there is a story about me. But I just ignore it.”
Following huge advancements in mitochondrial replacement therapy – or three parent babies – she has spoken of her wish that other families will not receive the same cruel treatment.
Asked whether she thought families who use the ‘three-person baby’ technique will get similar abuse, she replied: “I hope they don’t.”
Earlier this year doctors at the Newcastle Fertility at Life clinic were awarded the first official licence to create a baby with three genetic parents. It follows the birth of the world’s first three parent baby Abrahim Hassan last year.
Scientists in Mexico used a tiny amount of mitochondrial DNA from a female donor to prevent him inheriting a fatal nervous system disorder.
But Louise has hit back at those opposed to fertility treatments, claiming it’s no different to solving any other medical problem.
She said: “They have their opinion and they are entitled to it. Most people with fertility issues have a medical problem and if medical science can overcome it I don’t see that being any different to trying to solve any other medical problem.”
In a rare interview ahead of the landmark 40th anniversary of her conception, the 39-year-old mother of two admitted she has struggled to know how to commemorate the unusual occasion.
She told the M.E.N.’s sister title, the Mirror: “For me it has been a particularly strange time as those cells that divided in a petri dish at a cottage hospital near Oldham on November 10, 1977 became me!
“I shall be working as usual on the anniversary. I don’t think people celebrate the anniversary of their conception, do they?”
Her arrival was so controversial, the world’s press flooded the streets outside the Manchester hospital where she was delivered by caesarean section weighing 5lb 12oz.
In 1978, Pope John Paul I even weighed in on the religious and ethical debate, but refused to condemn Louise’s parents Lesley and John for wanting a child.
Since then, more the six million children have been born via IVF. But with one round of IVF costing the NHS between £3,000 and £11,000, couples face an increasing healthcare lottery as access to the treatment is restricted.
Only 12 per cent of UK clinical commissioning groups offer couples the recommended three rounds, and seven in the country refuse treatment altogether.
Louise has chosen the 40th anniversary to remind healthcare chiefs that the technique pioneered by British scientist Robert Edwards and his obstetrician colleague Patrick Steptoe, was meant for everyone.
She said: “It must be devastating for couples to be told there is no help they can be given. It is unfair if it depends on where you live as to whether you can get IVF treatment or how much you have to pay.
“That situation is also the same in the USA where some insurance covers IVF but most don’t. It is also the same across Europe where access to IVF treatment varies enormously across EU countries.
“My mum and dad were quite poor, in fact when they first got together they were sleeping rough in a railway carriage.
“Bob Edwards, who pioneered the technique, was keen that it should be something that all people could benefit from – not just those who could afford it.
“Of course when money is tight organisations like the NHS have to make tough decisions on where the money is spent.
“Infertility is often caused by a medical condition or physical problem that can be overcome by the right treatment and I support those people campaigning for it to be available as widely as budgets will allow.”
After being thrust into the spotlight at such a young age, the busy working mum uses her unique position to help promote fertility awareness wherever she can.