National Donation Strategy Group - about the members
Background
In April 2012 we launched a strategy to boost egg and sperm donation and advertised on our website for people interested in joining the HFEA’s new National Donation Strategy Group. We received a high number of good quality applications and selected members based on how well their interests, experience and commitment coincided with the aims of the group.
As a result, the group comprises of people who possess a wide range of knowledge and expertise in donor recruitment and donor customer care, including people with interest in the welfare of donors, patients and donor-conceived people. We are particularly pleased to have attracted people from beyond the IVF sector, unlicensed donation services, and donation within the LGBT and BME communities.
The group members are:
Sheila McLean, Chair
Sheila McLean is Emeritus Professor of Law and Ethics in Medicine at Glasgow University. Sheila has chaired a range of high profile committees, including the Committee of Inquiry into Retention of Organs at Post-Mortem, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission and the Inter-Agency Forum on Female Offenders.
Sheila’s research interests include medical law, with particular reference to consent to treatment, end of life issues, human rights, genetics and the law and human reproductive rights. In addition, Sheila has engaged in a number of research projects which focus on the implications of legal, ethical and social science methodologies for public policy in healthcare delivery.
Joanne Adams, Senior Andrologist at Manchester Fertility Services
Joanne Adams has worked in the donor bank arena for the last 18 years. Joanne is currently the Senior Andrologist at Manchester Fertility Services (MFS), running their Diagnostic Andrology Laboratory and Donor Sperm Bank and has been involved in the development of their egg share programme. Prior to this, she ran the Donor Sperm Bank at Bristol CRM.
Joanne would like to see donors across the country being treated with respect, and is interested in promoting donor recruitment and improving patient services. Joanne has been involved, through the National Gamete Donation Trust and the working party on Sperm Donation Services in 2010, in trying to improve donor recruitment in the UK since the removal of anonymity in 2005.
Sandra Cant, Charge midwife/Fertility Specialist midwife, Aberdeen Fertility Centre
Sandra Cant has committed over 25 years to improving the donor services in Aberdeen, primarily working on their sperm donation programme, counselling and treating recipients. In 2011, Sandra was part of a Scottish Government Working Party looking at how to improve sperm donor recruitment in Scotland.
Sandra would like to see the UK reach a level of donor recruitment that meant patients did not have to travel abroad for donor treatment. Sandra would also like to see an increase in the availability of ethnic minority donors available to patients.
Theo Clarke, Lead Donor Relations Manager BME and Special Projects, NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT)
Theo Clarke is the Lead Donor Relations Manager, BME and Special Projects, at NHSBT. Theo’s role is concerned with the recruitment and retention of black and minority ethnic donors for the NHSBT blood and stem cell registers.
Theo has experience of community engagement and equipping staff with the knowledge and the confidence to successfully recruit and retain donors from the BME communities. Theo currently manages all national BME recruitment activity and has a team of staff who recruit in their respective regions. Having worked for NHSBT for over 10 years, Theo has a solid knowledge of basic recruitment as well as bespoke recruitment techniques.
Rebekah Dundas, Authority member, Parent of donor-conceived children
Rebekah Dundas joined the Authority in January 2007 and has personal experience of donor conception. After having six years’ experience of infertility investigations and treatment, Rebekah has three children born following donor IVF. Rebekah is a member of Infertility Network UK, the Donor Conception Network and the Twins and Multiple Births Association.
Rebekah was a member of a Scottish Parliament cross party working group on infertility services and a member of an expert advisory group that advised on the Access Criteria for Infertility Services in Scotland. Through active involvement in these groups, Rebekah has participated in media campaigns, political awareness raising, and policy making to highlight the issues surrounding the use of donor gametes.
Bobbie Farsides, Professor of Clinical and Biomedical Ethics, Brighton and Sussex Medical School
Bobbie Farsides is Professor of Clinical and Biomedical Ethics at Brighton and Sussex Medical School. Bobbie’s research focus is on ethical issues relating to healthcare, including on reproductive technologies. Bobbie has conducted research into embryo donation for treatment and research and has worked with assisted reproductive services across the country, considering the issue of donation in a number of different contexts.
As an academic ethicist, Bobbie is committed to ensuring that any increase in egg and sperm donation is achieved without compromising safety and/or introducing any possibility of exploitation. Bobbie has served on NHSBT working groups and has recently been a member of the Nuffield working party on Human Bodies Donation for Medicine and Research.
Dr Tabitha Freeman, Research Associate at the Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge
Tabitha Freeman has an academic background in social science research on families, parenting and assisted reproduction. Recent research projects include an investigation of contact between donor-conceived people, their donors and donor siblings and a comparison of heterosexual-couple families where children have, or have not, been told about their donor conception. Tabitha is currently working on a study of families headed by single mothers who have conceived through DI, including the first UK sample of donor-conceived children conceived since the removal of donor anonymity.
Tabitha aims to bring an awareness of key issues concerning the well-being of the donor-conceived, particularly in terms of their psychological, social and emotional development and the disclosure of donor information, and of the wider implications of the removal of donor anonymity.
Alexander Hilton, Head of International Strategy, Anthony Nolan
Alexander Hilton is Head of International Strategy at the UK stem cell charity Anthony Nolan, which provides cells to patients in need of a bone marrow transplant. The charity maintains a register of potential donors of blood stem cells and collects umbilical cord blood from donating mothers, taking responsibility for the care of donors at each stage of their journey.
He has recently developed a policy programme for the charity that encourages a patient focus where previously work had been clinician directed, and has also contributed to an adjustment of the Anthony Nolan’s donor recruitment policies. Alexander hopes his involvement with the Donation Strategy Group will result in a more fulfilling and successful experience for sperm and egg donors, parents and donor-conceived people.
Tracey Sainsbury, Fertility Counsellor
Tracey Sainsbury is a Fertility Counsellor who works with patients and donors providing implications, support and therapeutic counselling at the London Women's Clinic, the Bridge Centre and the London Sperm Bank. Tracey's work includes all aspects of treatment using donated gametes both in the UK and overseas. Tracey also works with people who donated or underwent treatment in the past but who now have differing views around their treatment.
Tracey believes that although there is more awareness of donor conception being a positive choice, there is still room to raise awareness of the need for donors, the realities of what being a donor means and of realistic implications for children conceived using donor gametes.
Sarah Norcross, Director of Progress Educational Trust (PET)
Sarah Norcross is Director of Progress Educational Trust (PET), and Commissioning Editor of the charity's flagship publication BioNews. She carried out voluntary work for the Daisy Network Premature Menopause Support Group for more than seven years, during which time she served as that charity's Vice Chair. She is a member of the Association of Fertility Patient Organisations, the National Gamete Donation Trust's Advisory Council, and the National Infertility Awareness Campaign.
During her time as Director of PET, Sarah has organised several events on the shortage of donor gametes. In 2012, she will be leading a project on donor conception supported by the Wellcome Trust, which will focus on identity, parenthood, genetics, donor information and screening.
Helen Prosser, Natalie Gamble Associates
Helen Prosser manages the UK’s only specialist fertility law firm, Natalie Gamble Associates, and has a professional background in marketing, business development and PR. Helen is a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Gamete Donation Trust and an international member of the American Bar Association’s Assisted Reproductive Technology committee.
Helen has experience of working with donor-conceived families in a number of different family forms and with patients who have had treatment at UK licensed clinics, through donor websites, with known donors and through foreign clinics. Helen has campaigned for change, most recently getting maternity/paternity leave for intended parents of surrogacy onto the public agenda.
Ms Erika Tranfield, Co-founder of Pride Angel, Parent of a donor-conceived child
Erika Tranfield, with her partner Karen Carmichael, founded Pride Angel, a connection site and support forum for gay, lesbian and infertile couples wishing to become parents through donor conception. Pride Angel is a service which actively looks to work alongside fertility clinics in order to provide their users with a safe and comprehensive service.
Erika has experience of donor treatment with a known donor, and believes that sperm donation websites have an important role in promoting donation and connecting people, whilst at the same time giving recipients and donors the ability to access professional services.
Laura Witjens, Chief Executive of the National Gamete Donation Trust (NGDT) and Egg donor
Laura Witjens is the Chief Executive of the NGDT, having joined in 2003, after being an altruistic egg donor, and becoming Chair in 2004. The NGDT is a UK government-funded charity which aims to raise awareness of and alleviate the shortage of sperm, egg and embryo donors.
Laura works closely with patients, donors, clinics and other professionals to raise awareness for donor conception and to change donor treatment and attitudes towards donors on a clinic, policy and media level. Laura has been a member of a number of advisory groups related to donor-conception and is currently sitting on the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, Working Party ‘Donor conception: ethical aspects of information disclosure’.
Page last updated: 24 June 2013