Sam, Elaine and Hazel met under the apple blossom on a sunny afternoon and were joined by a robin flitting about the branches above us and landing on our table for a brief moment.

As we sat and enjoyed our baguettes and carrot cake we chatted about issues dear to our hearts and discussed ideas which would help people having IF treatment.

Here are the ideas we came up with:

Web pages to give information and guidance to IF people interested in campaigning for fairer NHS funding for fertility treatment and other useful information.

• A page setting out the text of a standard letter that we could all copy and paste and send to our local MPs.
• A page about donating eggs and egg sharing schemes.
• A page of poetry.
• A page about alternative treatments.
• A page devoted to pictures of the purple bag in interesting places – e.g. if you are visiting Skegness or Egypt take a picture of the purple bag and send it in so it can be put on the web page.
• A page summarising face to face meetings of UKBuddies such as this one.
• A page listing the Health Authorities that do not provide any funding whatsoever and, if you live within one of those HAs, a standard letter to copy and paste to send to that particular HA.

Leaflets to give to our clinics to put in their waiting rooms to let fellow patients know of UKBuddies support group.

Ask clinics and other related organisations to include a link to UKBuddies at their web sites.

Pink and blue ribbons to help promote infertility awareness and link in with the NIACs campaign.

Recruiting sponsors to help promote the same, famous people who have had children through treatment and perhaps famously fertile people to help promote the need for egg donors (e.g. Spice Girls).

Making a radio or TV programme from the patient’s point of view and presenting a balanced view while still remaining positive.