World’s first test tube baby leaves flowers on grave of ‘forgotten’ IVF pioneer who helped create her
Louise Brown, 39, was born at Oldham General Hospital on July 25, 1978 after her parents Lesley and John became the first people to successfully undergo IVF
THE world's first test tube baby has paid tribute to the "forgotten" third pioneer who worked alongside the two researchers widely credited with the development of IVF.
Louise Brown, 39, was born at Oldham General Hospital on July 25, 1978 after her parents Lesley and John became the first people to successfully undergo in vitro fertilisation.
Her birth attracted controversy, with religious leaders expressing concern about the use of artificial intervention and some raising fears that science was creating "Frankenbabies", but also paved the way for around eight million IVF births across the world to date.
Louise, now a mother-of-two living in Bristol with her husband, Wesley Mullinder, said that the contribution of embryologist Jean Purdy deserved greater recognition, alongside the better-known involvement of gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe and physiologist Robert Edwards.
Purdy, who was initially hired as a lab technician by Edwards, was the first person to witness the successful cell division of the embryo that would become Louise.
She co-authored 26 academic papers about IVF and helped found the Bourn Hall fertility clinic in Cambridgeshire, but is rarely mentioned in the story of IVF.
Purdy died in 1985, aged 39.
Louise, who works as a clerk at a freight company, said: "Jean Purdy was, I was told by my mum, the one who saw all the cells dividing which is now me. Without her I don't think IVF would have taken off.
"I know Bob and Patrick used to go home to their wives and families and I think it was Jean that used to stay and make sure everything was just as it should have been."
She described them as "three great people" and said she hopes Purdy "gets the recognition she deserves now".
She was speaking at Bourn Hall to mark 40 years of IVF, and earlier laid flowers at Purdy's new memorial at the Church of St Andrew and St Mary in Grantchester where she is buried.
Steptoe died in 1988 aged 74, and Edwards died in 2013 aged 87.
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Edwards, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2010 for the development of IVF, had previously said "there were three original pioneers in IVF not just two".
Louise added: "They should have all been recognised more than they were."
She said her parents received "weird" mail over the years, including a package from California containing a broken test tube with a foetus and fake blood, but that she had never had any "nasty" approaches and "definitely not recently".
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