Infertility Awareness

1. Last November saw the third
National Fertility Awareness Week
(NFAW) and, as ever we were
overwhelmed by the support and
encouragement from everyone.
Yet again the clinics took up
the Embryo Challenge, by
donating money for every Embryo
creating during NFAW. We would
like to thank GCRM Belfast,
Jessop Fertility, Origin Fertility,
Zita West Clinic, Cambridge IVF,
Herts & Essex Fertility Centre,
Newlife and The Bristol Centre for
Reproductive Medicine for their
ongoing support.
In addition to this we also once
again had bakers from all across
the UK getting creative with their
decorating skills! Friends, supp-
orters, nurses, patients and
companies all baked during the
week, raising money for I N UK
and raising awareness by hosting
cake auctions, tea parties and
bake sales. As you will see from the photographs –
the results are simply AMAZING! It always
astounds, and frankly, impresses me the level of
imagination and effort everyone puts into their
baking. The cakes and cupcakes are always really
special.
We also had support from our friends at Nuffield
Health. They agreed to give out free one day
passes to their gyms, encouraging people to
run, walk or swim 5k for us. They also did
some research into male fertility issues –
and it made some interesting reading, see
page 6 for a roundup of the survey results.
Continuing along a male theme there was
a wonderful webinar from Russell Davis, A
Fertile Mind who spoke about The Silent
Hero, and how to help your partner, son,
friend or brother going through fertility. He
discussed the differences between men and
women and how we deal with things in very
difference ways. You can listen to
the full webinar here: https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=
6XFlDFzEDGw
Another highlight was the series
of both interesting and informative
podcasts, which were posted
throughout the week by The Fert-
ility Podcast, all of these can still
be heard on their website: http:
//www.thefertilitypodcast.
c o m / c a t e g o r y / p o d c a s t /
season-2/. Then on the NFAW
website we asked for infertility
blogs to be shared with us. The
sorties that people shared are
heart-warming, sad, happy,
poignant, funny and often
inspirational. Read them for
yourself: http://www.
infertilitynetworkuk.com/
nfaw/media/
Finally, we had our social media
campaign. Social media is, in this
day and age, a wonderful way to
‘spread the word’, it is a natural
way to raise awareness. We asked
everyone within the fertility
community to use two #’s –
#1in6 and #NFAWUK. Our
wonderful Twitter and Facebook followers sent in
their photographs showing support for the
campaign. The photographs are wonderful and they
remind us all exactly why we have National Fertility
Awareness Week, and why we will continue to
support #1in6 however and
whenever we can.
Kara Myhill
Campaign
Manager
NATIONAL
FERTILITYAWARENESS WEEK2 - 8 NOVEMBER 2015
12 I N UK Winter 2015-16
WeThankYouALL