Trust decision robbed us of our chance to have children

Childless couples are being denied fertility treatment in Newcastle and the Staffordshire Moorlands, as the health service has classed it as a low priority. But just a few miles away in Stoke-on-Trent, treatment is being paid for by the NHS. Jessica Williams speaks to two couples about the IVF postcode lottery which has changed their lives. AYSHEA Turner had just finished her GCSEs exams when she collapsed at school in crippling pain. The 16-year-old, of Mansfield Close, Clayton, was diagnosed with endometriosis.

Affecting around two million women nationwide, the condition causes pieces of the womb lining to stick to other parts of the body, such as the ovaries or bladder.

Doctors said Ayshea was one of the youngest people in the UK to be diagnosed with the condition, which affects fertility.

Over the last seven years, Ayshea, now aged 23, has seen numerous specialists for the problem, which has taken over her life due to heavy bleeding and excruciating pain.

She said: "I was prescribed several contraceptive pills but they didn't work. Doctors had to induce menopause for six months when I was 20 to control the bleeding.

"When I was 21, I found out that I had endometriosis in the bladder, bowel and pelvis."

The pain forced her to give up her administration job at Stoke-on-Trent City Council last year.

But Miss Turner, who also has blocked fallopian tubes, is desperate to have a child with her partner of six years, 27-year-old joiner Jason Watkins. The couple have been told their only chance of success is IVF treatment, which North Staffordshire Primary Care Trust refuses to fund. She will also need hormone treatment as she can not produce her own eggs.

Mrs Turner said: "I am so desperate to have children. I have seven nieces and nephews who I love to bits. I would have a whole football team if I could.

"I just want the chance to be like everyone else, but I don't know what else to do next.

"I saw a programme the other night about former heroin addicts who had been given the treatment. It made me feel so angry. I have never done anything wrong. We can't afford IVF ourselves.

"Getting it on the NHS is our only chance."

Mr Watkins said: "We are desperate to have kids and want them sooner rather than later.

"It was a low point in my life when I found out we couldn't get funding. I was absolutely gutted."

Mrs Turner wrote to David Cameron this year in her desperation to conceive.

She said: "He said he had greatest sympathy with my condition but could not help as I was not in his constituency. He pointed me in the direction of MP Paul Farrelly who is now campaigning for me."

North Staffordshire PCT, which delivers healthcare for Newcastle and the Moorlands, has not paid for any IVF treatment since April last year. After falling into financial difficulty, it scrapped funding for IVF in favour of 'higher priority' conditions such as cancer.

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