Gillian joined MFS in 2000 as medical director after working in fertility medicine since 1991, initially at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford where she also completed her Doctorate. Her research interests include polycystic ovarian syndrome, age-related sub-fertility and recurrent miscarriage. Under her guidance, MFS was the first UK clinic to use the hormone inhibin B to assess ovarian reserve, a procedure now offered to many patients.

She is organiser of the British Fertility Society Ethics Training, vice-chair of the RCOG Ethics Committee and was a special advisor to the Parliamentary Select committee reviewing the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990. She lectures and broadcasts on ethical and social issues in reproductive medicine and has published widely on all aspects of fertility, including co-authoring Fertility & Infertility for Dummies with Jill Anthony-Ackery in 2006.

Mike has been MFS’ accredited consultant since 2003. He and Gillian Lockwood have been colleagues for about 20 years, having met and worked together in Oxford. Mike is a gynaecological surgeon with a special interest in endoscopic and laparoscopic surgery. He has wide experience in the management of complex endometriosis and fibroids.

After studying medicine at King’s College London and completing her training at hospitals including Coventry Walsgrave, Birmingham Heartlands and Good Hope in Sutton Coldfield, Liz completed her specialist training (CCT) in obstetrics and gynaecology in 2008. Soon after she joined MFS, where she wants to combine her experience in obstetrics and ultrasound scanning and her interest in complementary therapies, to develop an holistic approach to investigating and treating infertility at MFS.

Abey joined MFS in August 2005 after qualifying as a doctor in 2002 at the University of Calicut, India. From 2003-2005, he completed his basic obstetrics and gynaecology training at the Manor Hospital in Walsall and at Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield and is currently undertaking his specialist training at MFS, following his particular interest in infertility. Abey speaks fluent English, Malayalam and some Hindi.

Karolina joined MFS in October 2008 as a clinical research fellow after qualifying as a doctor at the Medical University in Warsaw, Poland, and completing her ST2 specialist training in obs and gynae at Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield and at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton. She is currently studying for her MD at Warwick University and speaks English, Polish and some German and Russian.

Heidi joined MFS in 1987 soon after the unit opened. She joined the Board of Directors in 1996 and is responsible for delivering and continuously improving the clinic’s nursing services.

She is one of the most highly-qualified fertility nurses in the UK, licensed for many procedures only doctors carry out at other hospitals and clinics, including egg collections and is currently the only nurse in Europe carrying out surgical sperm retrieval. Her extensive experience led to an invitation to be the fertility nursing consultant during the set-up of a fertility clinic in Jamaica in 2000.

In 2006 she was elected to the chair of the paramedical committee of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE).

Mandy Godwin returned to MFS in 2006 after leaving in 2004 to join the team of midwives at Good Hope Hospital. In April 2007 she was appointed nurse manager at MFS, a role which includes patient caseloads as well as managing the nurse staffing requirements, clincial reviews and maintaining and further improving standards of nursing care at MFS. With Vicki Robinson and Heidi Birch, Mandy is one of only a few nurses in the UK currently performing IVF egg recoveries and she is also one of the MFS out-of-hours on-call team.

In 2006 Mandy received the Canadian Nurse Exchange award after presenting a paper at the British Fertility Society (BFS) on her research into fertility drugs, which she prepared as part of her MSc in Women’s Health.

Mandy works occasional weekends in the maternity unit at Good Hope Hospital, so she has the chance to see some MFS patients at the other end of their pregnancies too.

After qualifying as a ‘direct entry’ midwife in 2002, Bethan joined MFS in April 2003 and in 2005 she completed a degree in midwifery from the University of Nottingham. In addition to her patient caseload, Bethan is regularly part of the surgical sperm retrieval term and is also the infection control nurse at MFS.

Nikki joined MFS in March 2002 after working as a general nurse and qualifying as a midwife in 2000.

Victoria joined MFS in November 2005 after training, and gaining five years nursing experience, including some midwifery experience, at New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton.

Tracey joined MFS in April 2006 after gaining 11 years general nursing experience, mainly in gynae and women’s health, in the West Midlands, New Zealand and Angola.

Ruth rejoined MFS in April 2006 after leaving in 2001 to take a career break. Before that, she was a fertility nurse specialist at MFS for more than four years, after training at Derby Royal Infirmary and gaining general nursing, midwifery and fertility nursing experience at Stoke Hospital.

After qualifying as a general nurse in December 1991 and working mainly within gynaecology, Helen joined the nursing team at MFS in October 1999.

Donna returned to MFS in September 2007 after working for a year in a fertility clinic in Queensland, Australia. In addition to her patient caseload as one of the fertility nurse specialists, she is also the MFS pre-patient liaison nurse, checking that people who attended the open evenings are happy with the quality of the information they received and following up enquiries by phone. After qualifying as a nurse in 1999 and working as a senior staff nurse at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton, she first joined MFS in May 2004 where she worked as one of the fertility nurse specialists for almost three years.

Vicki joined MFS in 1996 after completing her Registered General Nurse training and qualifying as a midwife and then spending eight years as a hospital-based midwife, when she developed an interest in scanning. In 1999 she was appointed nurse manager at MFS, a role she held for almost eight years, before choosing to scale down her hours as one of the team’s fertility nurse specialists. In addition to performing embryo transfers, Vicki is one of only three practising nurses in the UK (all at MFS) qualified to carry out egg collections.

Sarah returned to nursing at MFS in September 2007 after relocating to Wales in February 2006. After qualifying as a nurse in 1996 and specialising in gynaecology at Good Hope Hospital Sutton Coldfield, she orginally joined MFS in 2001 and spent five years as a fertility nurse specialist. She’s delighted to be back and cites ‘missing the patients’ as the reason for her return!

Sarah joined MFS in 1998 as an assistant to the nursing team. She helps with all the medical procedures and is also a qualified clinical hypnotherapist.

Vicky joined MFS in October 2006 as a trainee healthcare assistant. Since becoming a fertility nurse assistant she supports the clinical team, ensures stocks and drugs are replenished, handles some clinical administration and takes patient blood samples.

Lynsey joined MFS in 2008 as a secretary and in 2010 took up a new role as clinical administrator, supporting the doctors, nurses and nurse assistants. She manages the clinical diary via the Data Management System, provides patients with results of tests and procedures, including pregnancy tests, books appointments and ensures that all clinical administration is handled as efficiently as possible.

Su joined MFS in 1991 and has been laboratory director since 1995 and a director since 1998. The research for her M.Med.Sci investigated the genetics of eggs that failed to fertilise.

In 2000 she and Gina were responsible for establishing the lab procedures for successfully freezing eggs using the slow-freeze method and for introducing vitrification ‘flash-freezing’ in 2008. She has overall responsibility for the lab and the cryo-storage of patients’ eggs, sperm and embryos and is a member of the Association of Clinical Embryologists (ACE) executive committee.

Jo joined MFS in October 2005, with 20 years’ lab experience in all areas of fertility treatment, including working as a senior clinical embryologist in three other clinics. As laboratory manager, she has responsibility for the staffing and smooth-running of the lab including the calibration of equipment.

Gina joined MFS in 1999 having previously specialised in the study of embryology in cattle. In 2001 she was appointed as lab manager at MFS, a role she held for four years before opting to scale down her hours as one of the team’s clinical embryologists.

Pradnya joined MFS in September 2006 from the lab team at Plymouth Hospital and after spending five years as a clinical embryologist in Mumbay, India. She is licensed for all embryology and sperm procedures including ICSI. Pradnya speaks English, Hindi and Marathi.

After completing her BSc (Hons) in biological sciences in 2001, Laura worked as a college laboratory technician and joined MFS as laboratory assistant in January 2006, supporting the embryologists in all lab duties. In September 2007 Laura became a semenologist, concentrating on semen analyses and sperm preparation.

After completing her BSc (Hons) Geology, Valerie joined MFS in July 2006 as a laboratory assistant supporting the embryologists in all laboratory duties, including sperm preparation, data management and maintaining the cryo banks.

Lynne joined MFS in June 2006 with 30 years experience in pathology labs. With Jo Milner, the other MFS biomedical scientist, she ensures all the blood samples for hormone tests and infection screening are processed as required.

Jo joined the lab team at MFS as one of the biomedical scientists in June 2009.  WIth more than 25 years experience in the immunology and biochemistry labs and Good Hope and Heartlands hospitals, Jo works with Lynne Harrison processing the hormone and infection screening blood tests, in addition to the AMH tests for ovarian reserve. 

Anna joined MFS in 1993 and managed the introduction of BS EN ISO 9002:1994 in the clinic. The successful accreditation in 1994 made MFS the first assisted conception unit in the world to achieve this prestigious quality management system.

Anna joined the board in 1997 and in 2000 she became company secretary. She is the registered manager with the Care Quality Commission and is responsible for the general management and administration of the business.

Jill joined MFS in August 2004 with 14 years’ PR experience and after 18 months as the clinic’s PR consultant. She is responsible for communicating the clinic’s services through the media, the internet and literature and for managing its reputation through public relations activity. In 2006 MFS was awarded a Chartered Insitute of Public Relations (CIPR) Gold Award for her work on the Funded Fertility Treatment for All Campaign with The Birmingham Post. She has responsibility for Forum moderation and in 2006 she co-authored Fertility & Infertility for Dummies with Dr Gillian Lockwood.

A chartered certified accountant, Gail joined MFS in September 2005 following 16 years in public practice. She is responsible for the smooth-running of the finance department and for ensuring that patients’ and suppliers’ accounts are up to date. She will often meet patients at their first appointment to explain the payments procedure, or at other times to clarify any invoice queries or to discuss the cancellation policy.

Sharon joined MFS in June 2007 as the office supervisor and in April 2008 her role changed to office manager. With more than 25 years experience as a medical secretary in both the NHS and the private sector, she works closely with Jenny Abraham, the weekend office supervisor, to ensure the secretarial, office and reception teams provide the best service to patients and staff. Sharon also has basic sign language skills to BSL stage 1 standard.

Fiona re-joined MFS in 2004 and is responsible for the day to day management and maintenance of the quality management system - ensuring compliance with ISO9001:2008 and the additional requirements of the European Union Tissue Directive. Fiona also ensures effective and compliant management of the clinic’s human resources.

Jyoti joined MFS in 1996 and is responsible for collecting data on treatment outcomes and compiling statistics for MFS to calculate and improve its success rates. She also reports and verifies all information about treatment cycles to the HFEA.

Linda joined MFS in 1995 as a secretary and in 2004 she became responsible for liaising with the Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) which offer funded fertility treatment through MFS. Following an increase in the number of health authority contracts at MFS in 2005, Linda now manages the MFS relationship with 15 PCTs and is the first point of contact for all patients receiving funded treatment.

Jenny joined MFS in 2003 as a secretary and, with 15 years experience as a medical secretary or administration manager, was promoted to office supervisor in December 2005. Her responsibilities include supervising the weekend team and workload, secretarial work, typing patient letters and taking telephone calls.

Lorraine joined MFS in 2008 originally to provide secretarial support, but with five years experience in healthcare administration and as an operations manager, she now has responsibility for implementing the clinic’s data management system (DMS) which went live in early 2009.

Donna re-joined MFS in 1999.  She is responsible for the recruitment of egg donors and for managing the recipient waiting list.  In 2002 her role was extended to include the co-ordination of embryo donors and recipients.  In addition, she is part of the MFS quality management team, involved in incident investigation activity and supporting the work of the MFS complaints officer. 

Becky joined the weekend administration team in August 2005 as an office assistant. In July 2007 she extended her role at MFS to become the patient liaison finance officer, handling patient accounts, including issuing invoices and credit notes, receiving and recording payments and controlling bad debts. She is also currently studying for her AAT accountancy qualification.

Kerry joined MFS in March 2008 to handle the finance activity for suppliers’ accounts, sales invoices and bank reconciliation. She also takes patient payments over the phone.

Lindsay joined the finance team in January 2009, handling suppliers’ invoices and payments.

Carolyn Sage (below) who joins the team as a secretary, replacing Lynsey in the office team.  Carolyn joined MFS as a temp in June 2009 and previously worked at the University of Wolverhampton.  She has an NVQ3 in business administration and is now working towards her AMSPAR medical administration qualification.

Since August 2008 Gemma has been a regular friendly face at reception both during the week and with the weekend team. Since January 2009, as NHS contracts assistant, Gemma has also worked with Linda Tanner providing administrative support for the PCT contracts and NHS-funded patients’ correspondence.

Kathy originally joined MFS in 1998 as housekeeper and later became office assistant. Now as one of the receptionists, her responsibilities include answering the telephones and welcoming people to MFS.

Caroline joined MFS in 1993 and is one of the familiar faces on reception. She also answers telephone calls, handles patient payments and deals with patient enquiries.

Lauren joined the weekend team in September 2008, answering phone calls, responding to initial enquiries and welcoming patients on arrival at reception.

Angela joined MFS in 2005 and her role as filing clerk includes handling the post and finance payments and taking telephone calls.

Taslema joined the weekend team in November 2008 ensuring that all patients’ notes are carefully filed away or easily accessible if required for the early part of the following week.

Lottie joined the weekend office team as a filing clerk in October 2007, helping to ensure that patient notes are filed and accessible and handling other general admin tasks.

Salma joined MFS in 2004 as one of the weekend office assistants while studying at the the medical school of the University of Birmingham.  In 2008 she also became one ofthe Forum moderators, a role she continued from summer 2009 after passing her final exams and qualifying as a doctor and then taking up her new job at Walsall Manor Hospital to continue her medical training.

Pam joined MFS in December 1995 as a housekeeper, ensuring the unit retains its high standards of cleanliness and looking after the staff.

Julie Gittings joined the housekeeping team in 2008, to help maintain a pleasant and clean environment for patients, staff and visitors on the two floors MFS occupies in Centre House.

Carl joined MFS in 2000 and is responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the two floors MFS occupies at Centre House in Aldridge. He also manages the built environment requirements of major refurbishment projects, including the expansion within Centre House in 2007 and the subsequent redesign of the blood lab and new treatment rooms.

In addition to specifying and purchasing new equipment for MFS, Carl is the ‘person responsible’ for the legal deposit of all clinical and hazardous waste and for managing the maintenance plan, including fire safety compliance.

Judith worked with the founders of MFS to ensure that counselling and counselling skills were available to all patients attending since the clinic’s opening day in 1987. She has continued working as the counselling advisor and also delivers counselling when requested. She joined the Board as chairman in 2000.

Judith has worked in the field of child care, adoption, fostering, mental health and care management since 1969. She is a former chief executive of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and she has extensive experience of general management and board membership in commercial settings.