Congratulations to scientist Prof Robert Edwards on being awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine. But why has it taken so long for him to achieve this worldwide recognition?

The pioneering IVF treatment he developed with  Dr Patrick Steptoe at Bourn Hall Clinic, near Cambridge (he died in 1988) – resulted in test tube babies as we know them – and more than 4 million babies have been born this way.

There was a time my husband and I thought we would not be able to conceive, but thankfully we were blessed with two sons au natural. We would certainly have gone down this route if nature had not been in our favour. I know one woman whose life has been made complete with two babies using IVF, it is one scientific procedure which has had a profound and beneficial affect on people’s lives.

However, I remember once visiting Bourn Hall Clinic to interview Prof Edwards and saw a couple crying in the hallway, it felt such a sad place. It was a long time ago and the success rate then was only 20%, which meant that 80% of couples were devastated at the failure of their IVF programme;  I do not know what the success rate is today.

Sadly, infertility is said to affect up to 10% of all couples worldwide.

Prof Edwards is pictured here with his first test tube baby Louise Brown, with her own baby. What a miracle life can be – thanks to Prof Edwards and Dr Steptoe.