Auteur: Jackie Meyers-Thompson

Dr Gillian M. Lockwood BM BCh MA (Oxon) DPhil MRCOG is the Medical Director of Midland Fertility Services(www.midlandfertility.com). Gill was a late recruit to medicine.She read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford Universityand then worked as a Government Statistician. A televisiondocumentary encouraged her to change careers to Medicine and shequalified in 1986. A chance meeting with Professor Robert Edwards(the “testtube” baby pioneer) introduced her to thescience of IVF and since 1990 she has specialised in Reproductive Medicine. For 10 years Gill was Senior Clinical Research Fellow and Lead Clinician at the Oxford Fertility Unit, where her researchinterests included polycystic ovary syndrome, premature ovarianfailure, and recurrent miscarriage. She lectures and broadcasts onethical and social issues in reproductive medicine, has chaired the British Fertility Society Ethics Sub-Committee, and is a member ofthe RCOG Ethics Committee. She is an Associate Editor of Human Reproduction and a member of the Editorial Board of Human Fertility. She has published over 30 “first author”articles in international journals and has contributed to many textbooks and review publications. Since 2000 Gill has been the Medical Director of Midland Fertility Services (MFS), in the West Midlands. MFS is a “nurseled” fertility unit at which the nursing staff perform allprocedures required for IVF including surgical sperm retrieval(TESA), egg retrieval, and embryo transfer. MFS recently announcedthe successful delivery of the UK”s first “frozenegg” babies; a development that has given new hope ofbecoming “genetic mothers” to the thousands of youngwomen who each year have to undergo sterilising chemotherapy orradiotherapy. Jill Anthony-Ackery BA (Hons) is the Communications Manager at Midland Fertility Services. Jill is a relatively recententrant to the world of fertility treatment, with responsibilityfor the communications and marketing of MFS since 2003, initiallyas a consultant public relations director and then as a member ofthe clinic staff since 2004. Her qualifications for such a role? Adegree in art and film history (!) and 18 years” experiencemanaging the reputations of client companies from a small UK tradeassociation to international cosmetics, steel, and photographicequipment manufacturers. Oh! and also two years of ICSI treatmentat MFS, during which she and her husband Gwyn conceived twins, suffered a miscarriage at around 12 weeks, then had an unsuccessfulfrozen embryo transfer, followed by a second full cycle, resultingin the birth of their daughter Connie in 2002. When she returned to work in 2003, she combined her almostevangelical zeal about those miracle workers at MFS with herprofessional experience and patient perspective – and gotpaid for doing so! It”s a dream job where she continues to beinspired daily by the team and patients. Jill has written countless articles in a range of newspapers, consumer magazines, and trade publications from many industrysectors. She was also the original editor and a contributor to Beyond the Lens, the business bible for professionalphotographers. In 2006, her work at MFS won a gold award from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and she works closely withnational and regional press, television, and radio to satisfy theunquenchable media interest in assisted conception. Jackie Meyers-Thompson is managing partner of Coppock-Meyers Public Relations/For Your Information Communications, and a “professional” fertilitypatient. Sharon Perkins is the nurse coordinator for the Cooper Center for In Vitro Fertilization in Marlton, New Jersey, one ofthe largest infertility centres in the United States. Shepreviously worked in labour and delivery and neonatal intensivecare.