I was born on 25 July 1978 into a media frenzy around the world and called “the test tube baby”. I was the world’s first IVF baby. There are now over 12 million people in the world born through IVF and techniques developed following the breakthrough. 

I was given the middle name “Joy” by Patrick Steptoe, who successfully delivered me by Caesarean section. He said my birth would bring Joy and Hope to childless people around the world. It has! 

Being the world’s first IVF baby has taken me to all corners of the world. I am passionate about breaking the silence on all things fertility and ending the taboo about getting help for fertility issues or being born through scientific means. I enjoy making media appearances and attending events to explain how IVF came about and lending help and support to all those trying to conceive and those who work in IVF and the science that brought me into the public eye. 

My birth was the result of pioneering work by Patrick Steptoe, obstetrician and gynaecologist and Robert Edwards, biologist and physiologist, helped by research assistant and nurse Jean Purdy. It was the most remarkable medical breakthrough of the 20th Century – and also meant the end of a 10 year journey by my  parents Lesley and John Brown, who had been trying to conceive.