1. Jean Marian Purdy was a British nurse, embryologist and pioneer of fertility treatment.
24 Facts About Jean Purdy
1. 2.
Jean Purdy was responsible with Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe for developing in vitro fertilisation ; Louise Joy Brown, the first "test-tube baby", was born on 25 July 1978, and Purdy was the first to see the embryonic cells dividing.
3.
Jean Marian Purdy was born in Cambridge on 25 April 1945 to George Robert Purdy, a technician at the Cavendish Laboratory, and Gladys May Southgate, a homemaker.
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Jean Purdy attended Cambridgeshire High School for Girls between 1956 and 1963 where she became a prefect, joined sports teams and played violin in the orchestra.
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Jean Purdy trained to be a nurse at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.
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Jean Purdy became homesick and applied for a research post locally to work on tissue rejection.
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Jean Purdy later transferred to Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire where the first open-heart surgeries were pioneered in Britain.
8.
Jean Purdy began her work with Steptoe and Edwards as a lab technician, with the aim of developing in vitro fertilisation.
9.
Jean Purdy apparently spent more time in at the laboratory in Oldham than Edwards did, recording the results of endocrine monitoring, organising laboratory equipment and supplies, and running various tests.
10.
Jean Purdy was not involved in laparoscopic oocyte retrievals or the manipulation of embryos.
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Jean Purdy was the only person Edwards allowed in the lab, except for the American scientist Joseph Schulman.
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Jean Purdy regularly worked away from home, sometimes managing the lab alone.
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Jean Purdy played a significant and increasingly vital role, to the extent that, when she took time off to care for her sick mother, work had to pause.
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Jean Purdy was a co-author on 26 papers with Steptoe and Edwards, and 370 IVF children were conceived during her career.
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Jean Purdy has been remembered by friends and colleagues as unassuming with a gentle demeanour.
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Jean Purdy acted as a "go-between" for Edwards and Steptoe's strong personalities.
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Jean Purdy often interacted with both prospective husbands and wives on retrieval day.
18.
Jean Purdy had an artistic side, evident from her collection of classical music records and her calligraphic abilities.
19.
Jean Purdy was a deeply religious Christian and rebutted religious criticisms of IVF.
20.
On 16 March 1985, Jean Purdy died at the age of 39 in Addenbrooke's Hospital from malignant melanoma.
21.
Jean Purdy had only been ill for a short time, and during her illness a room was arranged for her in Bourn Hall where she could work.
22.
Jean Purdy was buried in Grantchester, Cambridgeshire, beside her mother and grandmother.
23.
Jean Purdy's importance was recognised following the publication of Edwards' papers in the 2010s.
24.
Also in 2024, Jean Purdy was portrayed by Thomasin McKenzie in the biographical drama film Joy, which similarly follows the development of IVF.