Blog: The Fertility Show 2021

By Sam Ward – PACT’s Events and Marketing manager

Up until 2020 the events team at PACT has enjoyed heading up to the bright lights of Olympia each November for The Fertility Show. It is always a privilege to speak with people considering different ways to grow their families.

This year The Fertility Show will be holding an online event (www.thefertilitysummit.com) with virtual stalls for people to find out more about the different ways to parenthood. The live event hopes to return in the spring of 2022.

It is always a pleasure to meet people at The Fertility Show; talk through what adoption could look like for them, answer any questions and, if the opportunity arises, clarifying any confusion or misconceptions around adoption that still persist today. It is always fantastic to then meet people later once they have children placed with them and to hear how they are all getting on. It is very satisfying that life changes can begin with a conversation.

Adopter George* recalls meeting PACT: “Andrew* and I had started conversations about how we would love to have our own children during the early days of our relationship.

“It was during Brighton Pride that we saw the PACT stall in the park, we looked at each other and thought it would be a good opportunity for us to find out more.

“We were greeted by two friendly social workers and also a father and his son. We were made to feel welcome and that absolutely it was possible for us to have our own children.

“We then attended the Fertility Show and gained further information there and very quickly ruled out surrogacy and favoured the adoption route.

“We continued our initial conversation with the social workers on the PACT stand and booked in for an information evening. This progressed to moving through the stages, training, and preparation.

“PACT has provided a huge amount of support over the past five years for us and our two beautiful children, including therapeutic services, training, family fun days, and support groups.

“Being within the PACT family has made a real difference as we have not felt alone in parenting children who had a rough start to life.”

Lily* and Alex* also met our team at The Fertility Show, in 2019. Lily said: “We had always spoken about adoption being an option for us, even before we were married, but after several years without success in starting our family naturally we eventually decided to try IVF.

“After one failed round of IVF and a subsequent round which unfortunately ended in miscarriage, we knew that IVF wasn’t the right option for us. The main thing was that we just didn’t want to wait any longer to start our family.

“We have both worked closely with children in professional settings and have so much love for our various Niblings, we knew from experience that biological connection is in no way essential for strong and loving familial relationships to flourish.

“We decided to give ourselves some time to recover emotionally from the IVF process so we could start our adoption journey the following year.

“We actually came across PACT purely by chance at The Fertility Show in November 2019. We happened to stroll past PACT’s stand and thought we would quickly stop by to gather some information.

“The person we spoke to was very welcoming and provided us with some information that we could take away, as well as details about a forthcoming information event which would be taking place in the new year.

“We both had a really good feeling from this brief informal chat, so decided we had nothing to lose by signing up to attend the information evening to find out more.

“Our daughter came to live with us in November 2020. Like a tiny firework she exploded in to our home on Bonfire Night. After a few days of settling in it felt like she’d always been with us, and we couldn’t really remember what life had been like before she was with us.

“She is funny, smart, brave, and incredibly friendly (she says ‘hiya’ to literally everyone she meets!) Her favourite things at the moment are reading books, going to soft play, searching for the Gruffalo, and eating as much gingerbread as humanly possible.”

PACT, like many other adoption agencies, encourages people who have experienced unsuccessful fertility treatments to take six months after the last treatment before embarking on the adoption process, to process to that loss.

However, whatever stage you are at in your thinking about the right way to grow your family, our friendly enquiries team are happy to help answer any questions you may have, whether you are ready to consider moving forward now with adoption or you are at the early stages of information gathering.

You are also very welcome to join one of our no-pressure information events (currently online); please book your place with the enquiries team by completing our enquiry form

We are very much looking forward to being able to meet people in person next year at The Fertility Show.

*Names changed for confidentiality purposes