The science seems commonplace now. But 30 years ago, when Louise Brown and then Alastair MacDonald became the first test-tube babies, they were global sensations.
The science seems commonplace now. But 30 years ago, when Louise Brown and then Alastair MacDonald became the first test-tube babies, they were global sensations.
IVF pioneer Patrick Steptoe was always known as "uncle" to Alastair MacDonald, the world's first test-tube boy, as their relationship, and Alastair, grew.
It was only when the doctor was widely honoured for his achievements at his death that an inquisitive nine-year-old Alastair guessed the connection.
Neither Mr MacDonald, from Glasgow, or Ms Brown, who lives with her husband Wesley in Bristol, have ever thought of themselves as medical marvels.
Mr MacDonald told his story yesterday ahead of the anniversary of the first successful process, involving Ms Brown, who was born two years before him.
The 28-year-old said: "I am in awe of the whole chain of events that have happened in 30 years.
"It has been one big rollercoaster for the world with the scientific developments that have happened since that."
He praised Professor Bob Edwards and Dr Steptoe of the Bourn Hall Clinic in Cambridgeshire, who introduced IVF, still considered a complex procedure.
"I am certainly very proud to be part of the history of it, but I would never like to take anything away from Bob Edwards and Patrick Steptoe in setting everything up and bringing this gift to the world.
"I was the first boy and second in the world after Louise. I was nine years old at the time Patrick Steptoe died, unfortunately.
"I had known Patrick effectively as an uncle, so to see all that in the news at the time it was too much of a coincidence to think that I wasn't a test-tube baby as well.
"So I worked it out for myself.
"Trying to look back, it is quite hard to remember how I felt.
"My mum had always told me that I was a special baby and that some day she would tell me.
"Growing up I was a child that liked to know everything and learned everything so as soon as I found that out I wanted to know about it.
"I suppose I was excited, but it was just something new to my life to find out about.
"My friends at school found out after I did a newspaper article and were the same as me, they just wanted to know about it. They were all okay."
Mr MacDonald's mother, Grace, now 62, separated from his father when he was four.
Mr MacDonald is now a systems engineering officer with the Royal Fleet Auxilliary.
He has no plans for a family yet. "I'm still enjoying the single life really, or not found anyone who will put up with me yet."
Bourn Hall Clinic in Cambridgeshire, founded by Professor Edwards and Dr Steptoe, is still going strong.
It sees around 850 or 900 women a year, with an average age of 37, and around one in three cycles results in a successful birth.
Louise Brown said: "I'm not really thinking of it as my 30th.
"I'm just carrying on as if this is a normal birthday.
"I might go out with my friends or I might have a meal with the family. I'm planning on having a quiet one."
Bourn Hall Clinic chief executive Dr Mike Macnamee said IVF has advanced dramatically since the early days.
He said: "It's still a complex and emotionally and physically tasking procedure to undergo.
"But in the early days we were collecting eggs through laproscopy, which required a very heavy general anaesthetic and a couple of days of bed rest.
"Then, it was an inpatient therapy but, with the advent of ultrasound, we can col- lect eggs really quite simply in a 20-minute procedure rather than a procedure of about an hour or an hour-and-a-half.
"And we can collect more eggs because we can see more of them with the ultrasound."
