As the NHS turns 75 today we have looked back at one of its most impactful advances, which took place in Oldham.

The world’s first ‘test tube baby’ was born at Oldham General Hospital, now known as the Royal Oldham Hospital, at 11.47pm on July 25, 1978 – 30 years after the NHS was created, on July 5, 1948.

Louise Brown, who turns 45 this month, was the first baby born through the procedure, known as in-vitro fertilisation, or IVF.

Now, millions of births have occurred with the help of IVF all across the world.

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Sir Robert Edwards, from Yorkshire, and gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe, from Oxfordshire worked in a team to carry out the procedure. Their work was commemorated with a plaque inside the hospital.

It wasn’t until years later that the work of women on the team was also recognised as prominently – with their names left out of many contemporary media reports as well as missed from the commemorative plaque.

Jean Purdy, a nurse embryologist, and Sister Muriel Harris, an operating theatre superintendent, both played significant parts in the procedure.

In fact, Purdy was the first person to witness the successful cell division of the embryo that would later become Louise.

In 2022, a plaque finally commemorating the two women was unveiled in the Royal Oldham Hospital.

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In 2019 it was revealed that Dr Edwards had protested to the Oldham Area Health Authority in 1981, asking for Jean Purdy’s name to be included.

He wrote: “I feel strongly about the inclusion of the names of the people who helped with the conception of Louise Brown.

“I feel this, especially about Jean Purdy, who travelled to Oldham with me for 10 years and contributed as much as I did to the project.

“Indeed, I regard her as an equal contributor to Patrick Steptoe and myself.”

ARCHIVE: Footage after birth of world’s first ‘test tube baby’ in Oldham released

Louise’s conception did not actually take place in a test tube – instead eggs were fertilised in a petri dish and then the two-and-a-half day old embryo was implanted in Louise’s mother, Lesley Brown.

Louise was successfully delivered early by caesarean section in Oldham, weighing 5lbs 12oz, or 2.608kg, at birth.

Louise was delivered early as Lesley had developed pre-eclampsia, a condition which can be life-threatening to mother and baby.

A TIME magazine report from 1978 documents Steptoe as saying: “She came out crying her head off… a beautiful, normal baby.”