The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
IVF couple’s baby joy
Bourn Hall has been awarded a new contract by the NHS to run IVF services in Peterborough and Cambridgeshire.
The service resumed on the NHS in Cambridgeshire afterbeingpreviouslyunavailable - in July 2021 following a campaign by Amber Izzo, the Peterborough Telegraph and Peterborough MP Paul Bristow.
The new contract to supply treatmenthasbeenawardedto BournHall,theworld’sfirstIVF clinic, which provides NHSfunded IVF for all regions of the East of England and East Midlands.
There are no waiting times fortreatmentatBournHalland 60% of patients under the age of 35 have a baby following one egg collection procedure.
Kelly Kew, from Peterborough, was only 22 when she was told that several ectopic pregnancies had damaged her tubes and she would struggle tohaveababynaturally.Atthat time-fiveyearsago-NHSfunding for fertility treatment was not available in Peterborough soshestartedsavingforprivate IVF treatment.
Then in July 2021 Kelly and husband Dan heard the good newsthatIVFtreatmentwould be available on the NHS to people living in Cambridgeshire, and, having done their research, chose Bourn Hall for treatment. It was successful first time and their son Harlan-Ray was born just before Christmas.
“NHSfundinggaveusalifeline,” said Kelly. “I was under so much stress I had to resign from work to concentrate on treatment; the thought of paying for it would have added so much more pressure.
“Being infertile is isolating. I wanted a child before all my friends, and they were all on number two or three before I had even got pregnant. I blocked myself off from them and have lost a lot of friends.
“Now I have Harlan I wouldn’t change any of it. In the future, I would like to become a midwife or a fertility nurse.Ihavelearntsomuchon myfertilityjourneyandIwould love to be able to help others.”
Dr Thanos Papathanasiou, CEO and Medical Director at Bourn Hall Clinic, said: “Infertility is a medical condition, which also has an impact on mental health and relationships. The re-introduction of funding is already making a huge difference to couples struggling with infertility, as Kelly and Dan were. Removing the postcode lottery is now enabling everyone who meets the criteria to have the chance of a baby.’’