Witney IVF campaigners celebrate birth of first son

11:00am Thursday 29th July 2010

By Amanda Williams

A COUPLE who campaigned for the NHS to pay for IVF treatment have celebrated the birth of their first child.

It was “love at first sight” for Richard, 30, and Jackie MacKenzie, 27, when they welcomed baby Bobby into the world in the early hours of Saturday.

The Witney couple repeatedly asked the county’s primary care trust NHS Oxfordshire for IVF treatment, but were turned down because they were too young – despite having tried unsuccessfully for a baby for six years.

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) has said free treatment should be given to women aged between 23 and 39, but NHS Oxfordshire only funded IVF treatment for couples aged 35-39.

So, in May last year, Mr MacKenzie launched a petition to get the trust to follow Nice’s guidance and gathered hundreds of signatures.

But, after reading about Mr and Mrs MacKenzie’s plight in the Oxford Mail, a private IVF clinic stepped in to offer help to the couple.

Robert Thomas John MacKenzie – known as Bobby – was born after a 12-hour labour at the John Radcliffe Hospital weighing 8lb 4oz.

And, when Mr MacKenzie held his son for the first time, the difficult months of campaigning and let-downs all seemed a distant memory.

Mr MacKenzie said: “I loved him as soon as I saw him. It sounds corny but, for me, it was the most natural thing in the world to hold him.

“I feel like I have known him all my life. I do not think I have stopped smiling since he was born.”

Couples can struggle to foot the bill for treatment as it can cost about £3,000 per cycle.

Mrs MacKenzie added: “I am still having to pinch myself. It is a strange sensation when they first hand you your baby.

“To have this little person who you have been carrying for nine months suddenly looking up at you, it is just magical.

“I already want more babies. Maybe this has changed things for us and we can have them naturally, who knows? But if we have to go down the IVF route again then we will.”

Mr MacKenzie said: “We have had so many messages of support from people who were involved in the campaign, messages that must have been very difficult for them as childless couples to write.

“Holding Bobby has made me determined to help them. I want my son to live in world which is fair and to show him he can stand up to people if he does not agree with something.