Pioneering doc who delivered joy to millions

New TV drama turns spotlight on unsung heroine of IVF

- ASHLIE BLAKEY

THE untold story of how a nurse, who was pivotal in the world's first IVF baby being born in Oldham, struggled with her own fertility issues has been captured in a new Netflix drama.

Joy, a 1970s-based drama, follows the journey of Jean Purdy, a British nurse and embryologist, who joined forces with scientist Robert 'Bob' Edwards and surgeon Patrick Steptoe to 'unlock the puzzle of infertility' by pioneering in vitro fertilisation. The film tells the story from the medics' perspectives as they worked on developing the treatment before the first 'test-tube baby' Louise Joy Brown was born at Oldham General Hospital in July 1978.

In the heartfelt drama, Jean Purdy's own personal struggle with infertility is portrayed as she battled with endometriosis. Played by Thomasin McKenzie, religious Jean found herself estranged from her mother and rejected by her church as she struggled with the condition.