FREE ANNUAL IVF OFFER

Hope came alive last week in Asaba, Delta State for 10 lucky infertile couples who have almost given up on becoming parents when the management of foremost fertility treatment centre, Nordica Fertility Clinic, concluded another round of its draws to pick those to benefit in free treatment options.The idea of organising a public draw in which 16 Nigerian couples across the Federation, would, over a two-year period, have opportunity to access series of free In-vitro Fertilisation (IVF), cycles under the FTSF initiative is novel.The FTSF, formerly known as E.A.R.T (Expanded Access for Reproduction Techniques), was established as a result of the prevalence of infertility in society today and has since put smiles on the faces of many couples who hitherto felt incomplete.A regular IVF cycle in any standard fertility treatment facility costs an average of N650,000 to N1,000,000 depending on the clinic and profile of the case as a result, many couples desirous of conceiving their own babies have been denied the opportunity due to their inability to afford the cost. It was against this that Dr. Abayomi Ajayi, medical director, conceived the idea and the dream of fertility-challenged couples alive, FTSF was born.Implemented in partnership with Nordica Fertility Centre, Lagos/Asaba, the FTSF has, for years, been committed to the goal of giving 16 lucky Nigerians completely free IVF treatment cycle over a space of two years.The initiative was put together as a platform for enabling all fertility-challenged Nigerian couples, to have access to the best and most advanced assisted fertility treatment services in the world, at no cost.Two specially selected couples, who ultimately emerged from this raffle draw, will benefit from a full IVF or combination fertility treatment novel initiatives. This translates into two Nigerians every quarter.Ten couples are to be screened per quarter, out of which two would be chosen for the free IVF treatment. The Asaba event marked the second quarter of the ongoing event.The current phase of the draws kicked off three weeks ago, and by the time the period earmarked for couples to send in entries elapsed, a total of over 10,000 entries were received.To qualify for the rare opportunity offered by the FTSF, all intending couples, irrespective of their state of origin or residence, but with conception challenges, had sent their details - name, age of woman (wife), address and years of marriage to a special code 33140 - as directed. It was that simple.There were no limitations to the number of times of the entries. So all was set. The task of scaling down to the required 10 couples lay solely with the computer.From all indications, the choice of Asaba for this year's draws was not by accident. Rather it was significant. In a bid to ensure the initiative is truly national in character, there was need to move the draws around.First to be picked from the maze of entries was Joyi, whose cell phone number was conspicuously displayed on the screen. Joyi, who resides in Lagos, was unavailable to pick up the call when contacted on the indicated line, but a male voice, which announced itself as belonging to Mr Joyi urged the caller to ring back, promising to relay the good news to his wife.Joyi later called back to express her joy for being fortunate to have been picked again. Excitedly, she related how separately she and her husband had sent in repeated entries. Their strategy paid off because they emerged the very first winners. She had previously participated, but was not that lucky to benefit.Oseki David, a resident in Benin City, was the next lucky winner as his number rolled up on the screen. In the number three spot was P.B.Ghomorai from Patani. Fourth phone number to roll up on the screen belonged to Tom George of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.Falana Oluwayemisi, who resides in an undisclosed town in Osun State, emerged the fifth winner to round off the first half of the draws with her number.The sixth winner was identified as Kehinde Ologun of Lagos. Her number was randomly picked.She was followed by Tosin Oderinde of Ilorin Kwara State, while Ugbagbor, a resident of Lagos emerged the eighth winner by virtue of the fact that the computer picked her phone number out of the lot.When Nwaoghor Okwudili Unity's phone number was picked as the ninth winner, the hall erupted into applause because she resides in Asaba and it was a home call for everyone who was there that evening.Relevant Links· West Africa· Nigeria· Pregnancy and ChildbirthJust to keep up the excitement, organisers of the programme added a bonus by arranging an impromptu lucky dip for all couples present in the hall with fertility challenges.This was how Isioma Mordi and Isioma Matthew and their spouses got the rare opportunity to be screened free of charge by Nordica, Asaba. However, they would not be eligible for the full IVF cycle unlike the 10 couples earlier picked from the draws.The next step for the lucky 10 is that they would all undergo comprehensive screening to determine the best way in which they could be assisted to have their own children.Two couples with the best chances of attaining conception will then be selected from this list to benefit from full IVF or combination fertility treatment.SOURCE: ALLAFRICA.COM