​Those who know me know that I am a huge dog lover, but I wasn’t always. As a child I was attacked by a dog, foaming at the mouth and never again wore the coat that it snatched from me as I ran away. When living in Spain we got our first dog Ini (part Springer Spaniel and part Beagle) who was a rescue dog as my husband wanted our daughter, Emily, to experience that special relationship with a dog he had growing up. Ini was her brother as far as she was concerned, and they grew up together. I swear they had some of the same mannerisms at times! I was fearful when we got Ini, but he was the best dog and helped me be the dog mum I am today.
I will never be allowed to forget that it was me who fell in love with Merlin (Field-bred Cocker). In Spain, garden centres also sold pets and every time we went to the garden centre, I was very vocal telling the other two “we don’t need another dog, we have a dog, don’t fall in love with a dog” and of course, it was me who did.
I asked to pick him up, he tucked his head under my chin and put his wet nose on my neck and I was gone. Love at first sight. Welcome to the family, Merlin! Ini had a little brother who he loved; Emily had another brother too. Perfect.
We added to our doggy family over time and at the top count had seven dogs! I was certainly not scared of our dogs and was officially a doggy mum!
The problem with pets is that they cannot live forever, they will leave before we want or are ready for them to leave. Ini lived to the grand age of just over 14 years, we lost Jasper (our Golden Cocker) when he was just under ten and most recently, we lost Merlin at the age of 15 and a half years.
Dog of my heart… yep. I heard this phrase a few months back and wasn’t sure it sounded right, but it is. I can’t type this without crying as he was such a part of our lives for so long. The house is too quiet without him, he wasn’t very vocal in the house but anyone who has a dog will tell you it makes a difference when they are not there. My shadow is not there anymore. He would cry if I left him in a room and closed the door, he would pad round the house to find me if I was not with him in the sitting room. He was old, his body had had enough, and he had no interest in food, so we were syringe-feeding him. It was time but those 24 hours before the vet came over were the hardest ones for me. Making that decision to help him over the rainbow bridge was so hard but it was the last act of love that I could do for this dog of my heart. He lay on my body as the medication was given and I felt his heart under my hand as it slowed and stopped.
I miss him horribly, but I am also immensely grateful for all the years I had him with me.
Goodbye, Merlin.

Cover art by Kayne Valian (@kay.kune on Instagram), photos taken by Pellows at varying times.

(This post was originally written on 25th July 2023, but due to delays is only being posted now. Apologies!)​

​As expats we are incredibly lucky to be able to live in a wonderful country, namely Greece. The people are friendly, the views are fabulous, the coastlines and islands are great and the weather is most agreeable. But this story is not about us.
As we have seen over the past few years, there can be disadvantages to living the good life in the wake of global warming, and that is wildfires. Greece is not alone in these tragedies. America has had to deal with these for years as have many countries that regularly have record temperatures.
But I would like to concentrate on Greece if I may, because we have first hand, personal experience of how frightening it can be to be caught up in these life threatening situations. When you are surrounded by fire, your fence is ablaze, the smoke is thick and you have a Jaguar X-Type that you have to get 6 dogs and 3 humans in - well you make it work. It's scary as hell when you can feel the heat when you are in the car driving through the gate.
As I said, these experiences are terrifying for the civilians living in the affected areas, but bear a thought for those brave souls who have to deal with these situations. The firefighters and volunteers from all services, but particularly to the two brave firefighting pilots who sadly lost their lives today doing a job I hope they loved and I'm sure believed in. Whatever the cause of the crash, they died protecting human lives, property, wildlife and the environment, which in my eyes, makes them heroes and our thoughts are with their families, friends and work colleagues who continue battling these fires. 
So we go from heroes to thoughtless idiots (insert stronger language at your discretion). Most of these fires are not started by accident. They are arson, pure and simple, and the people who set them are reprehensible scum who when caught, and most of them are, should be locked up for life. Too many lives, human or otherwise, have been lost to these fires. Being locked up is too good for them, but it's the best we have.
So we had another fire last week (17/07/23) in our area, and it was pretty bad and got quite close. From the top balony of our home, we watched as the hills to the North were aflame in a line of fire at least 3 kilometers long, and the glow of the flames rising over the peak of the mountain that separated us from the next town over. We could see the many fire engines travelling to and from the station, as well as the cars of the people evacuating, trying to find their way to safety.
The following day, a local venue that itself was in danger from the fires, had a firework display and they weren't the only ones. Sheer and utter thoughtlessness and madness! I don't give a rats arse what the event was, the display should have been cancelled. A few days after the fire, we drove past this venue and found the surrounding area had been burnt to black and ash from the original fire - sixty seconds was plenty of time to start another blaze and it shows utter contempt and disrespect for the firefighters and volunteers who, only 24 hours before, had been putting their lives on the line to protect human and animal lives. In that fire last week, an animal sanctuary lost over 40 cats and around 20 dogs. Pure reckless stupidity and shame on those who let the display go ahead and those that it was for. Moronic behavior like that doesn't deserve to be in the gene pool. 
The Greek government does have regulations about public displays, but bearing in mind the regularity and severity of these fires these policies need changing and changing now. Just as in the UK all fireworks should be banned to the general public, and all displays should be banned for at least 4 to 6 months during the summer. That is the least the government can do to honour those who have lost their lives battling this ever increasing threat.
So, spare a thought not only for those pilots, but for all the other services and volunteers who battle the flames, treat those who are injured, or the civilians who got in their personal vehicles to rescue animals from a sanctuary, as well as those sanctuary volunteers. Those people are the ones who should be respected, and those people are the heroes.

Addition, 13/09/2023: Last week, almost 2 whole months after the fires, Greece suffered from severe flooding caused by bad weather. Driveways and streets turned into rivers, tables in Monastiraki square being swept away with the water, and the high winds and water causing walls to break apart and even roadside bins to sink into the ground. We were lucky in that the worst we suffered was losing power occasionally, but there were many others who faced the dangers of these floods and the storms. This includes the very few, but never forgotten, 15 (and perhaps more) people that lost their lives in these floods.
Our thoughts go out to their fmailies, as well as those who have suffered in these floods. And, of course, the emergency services and volunteers working tirelessly to help everyone they can.

(Original art by me)

IVF Treatment Abroad is pleased to announce that we are introducing surrogacy to our treatment options. It's not that we didn't want to offer surrogacy, but that we wanted to be very selective with the clinic/agency involved, and after many months of careful consideration, in January, we decided on a surrogacy specialist agency in Ukraine! Oops! And we even had our first patient lined up to go.
 
It's not our place to be political, but it is our place to be human and the situation that the Ukrainian people find themselves in is totally and unequivocally not acceptable. We stand by them.
​ Of course, you can still travel to Kyiv for treatment, but knowing the uncertainty of the situation, our partners are now offering an alternative in Georgia (not the one in America)!  Tbilisi (Thu-buh-lee-see) is a historic city with many monuments and buildings and of course an old town, and well worth a visit. It too, has, of course, fallen under the banner of Russia, as it did with many countries in centuries past. Now, with independence, it is a thriving country with a lot to offer.
 
In conjunction with ourselves and the agency we are linked with, we can provide a full treatment and support package. IVF Treatment Abroad will be responsible for arranging all the medical tests required prior to your trip and will provide any extra support and backup as needed, as well as answer any questions you might have about the whole process. Our partners are surrogacy experts so will be in charge once the treatment is underway.
 Once in Georgia, you will have the services of an interpreter and the head of customer services from the agency to assist you during your visits.
 
There is too much information to put in this blog, so we invite you to contact us either at;
 
[email protected]
Whatsapp

On Friday the 10th of June 2022, the Pellow family lost a Mother and a Granny. What you read here can never do justice to her as a person and our feelings for her, and what she achieved in her time with us.
​
 Mum meant a lot of things to a lot of people. Apart from being a mother to me and my sister Nicki, a mother-in-law to my wife Ruth and Nicki's husband Michael, and a Granny to our daughter Emily, she was so much more than that. A teacher for most of her working career, she touched the lives of everyone she taught. Maybe some of those more than others, but I'm pretty sure she had an impact on all of them.

 Divorced from our dad, which I am sure was heart-breaking for her at the time, I don't think I ever saw her being particularly sad. Cross, yes. Angry, occasionally, (and if she was, I was probably the cause of it)! For the rest of it, she was a strong, vibrant, single mum who enjoyed life to its fullest. I'm sure it wasn't all raindrops on roses and maybe she had bigger dreams or ambitions that she wanted to achieve, but then again, maybe she did that by raising Nicki and myself. One of us got the smarts for the academic stuff and the other, the practical side of things, with a bit of each other's talents thrown in for good measure.

 I spent 3 hours this morning cleaning the cooker hood and filters to within an inch of their lives. It's wonderful what you can learn on YouTube. Some boiling water, salt, vinegar, and bicarb of soda. Mum was reasonably practical I suppose, smashing up concrete in the back garden whilst wearing my skateboard helmet for protection and building a doll's house pretty much from scratch. She built the furniture and even put in lighting as well as decorating each room. She painted in oils, did pottery, sewing, and went to evening woodwork classes with my high school woodwork teacher.
Our father on the other hand was not practical. He hung a picture which became a shelf after having made the string too long! In many ways, he was a great dad, but DIY was not his forte.

 Mum had to put up with a lot. A divorce, a daughter's teenage years and a son's teenage angst, his twenties traumas, and his thirties and......well you get the picture. She was always there for both of us when we needed her. She was everything a mum should be, caring, supportive, encouraging, and most of all, loving. And all these things didn't just come to us. They pretty much encompassed everyone she met. From her days in the WI to her retirement and volunteer work at the local care home, and everything in between.

 As children growing up, I don't think that we ever appreciate our parents as much as we should. I guess up to our teens is when they are most important to us, and then the reality of life takes a hold of us too. High school, exams, girlfriends and boyfriends, college or university, work, etc, etc. Suddenly, we are facing the same pressures that our parents are, and whilst we still love them, there is a subtle change in the parent, child dynamic. It's not much, and at the end of the day nothing really changes and it really doesn't matter, but it is there.

 And even in her later years when she came to visit Ruth, Emily, and myself in Greece, she was still game to be adventurous. We decided that it was such a great day and the sea was so calm that we would go out on the boat. I knew that we would be landing on the beach and that getting back on the boat would be difficult, so I took a stepladder! So the time comes to get back, and sure enough, the ladder needs to be deployed, much to the amusement of some local Greeks on the beach. When I told them that she was 85, they gave her a round of applause!

 Mum was a single-parent, working, house mum for most of her life, and if any one of us can look back at our own lives when and if we hit 91 and can say we achieved what she did, then we should be proud of ourselves. We're certainly proud of her.
 
We love you Mum and we're going to miss you. God Bless.

Myself and my partner first approached Ruth in January 2022 after she was highly recommended to us by a friend. Due to our age the option of free treatment with the NHS wasn’t available to us but the high cost of private treatment in the UK would also have been a stretch.  I was lucky enough to have a good friend who has two donor egg babies through Ruth’s services, I was left with no doubt that using Ruth’s services were the best option for us.  
From the offset Ruth has been helpful, supportive and most importantly accessible when we have needed her.  From the first consultation, Ruth gave us all the information required to make an informed decision, she has a wealth of experience which is helpful in the daunting world of fertility options. She was honest with us and our situation and advised us to look at helpful websites and sources of information before making our final decision on how to progress. 
It was not a simple decision but after talking to Ruth we decided to opt for an egg donor in Greece.  Ruth found us a suitable donor within a month of making the decision to start our IVF journey.  Unfortunately, after having issues with the initial donor, Ruth managed to find us another suitable donor before we made the trip over to Greece for the embryo transfer. We couldn’t have been more pleased with the outcome of the donor eggs retrieved.  
The two trips we had to Greece were seamless and everything went to plan. Staff were professional and put you at ease. I am happy to say that we are now 15 weeks pregnant and everything is going well so far. 
Another benefit of using Ruth was that all of the fees were clearly stipulated before embarking on our journey.  This was a great help to us as we found that fees to have the same treatment in the UK were not clear and we felt that the costs could spiral pretty quickly.  Of course egg donors in this country take far longer to arrange and when time is not on your side this was also another positive about going abroad and using Ruth for this treatment. 
I wouldn’t think twice about recommending Ruth, she is dedicated, passionate and honest.  I can’t express how helpful she has been even when we have randomly contacted her on a weekend. 
Good luck to anyone considering this process and using Ruth. We are extremely grateful for her help as she has given us something we never thought we would be blessed with. 

​Hey there, peeps! It's Emily, the Social Media/Blog Manager!

I've never written one of these before, mainly because I leave the medical stuff to my mother and the conversational stuff for my father. But this time, the topic is somewhat of my department.
It's Pride Month! And being in the community myself, I feel it's super important to make sure we acknowledge the struggles of the community so we make sure we don't repeat the same mistakes of history gone.
Now, where do I fall in the LGBT alphabet? Well, I'm the 'A' - Asexual. This means I don't feel sexual attraction, nor do I feel the need to do the deed. This is something that took me a little while to realise, but that's what being Queer is. Learning who you are until you know and feel comfortable with a label. Of course, you don't have to label yourself if you don't want to, and there's nothing wrong with that. Kudos to all Queer folk regardless!
Both my parents have been very accepting, and even if they don't fully understand it, they love me regardless. Of course, this isn't the case for a lot of people - including some good friends of mine. And if you're out there reading this, please know - there is ALWAYS going to be someone who loves you for you. 
Now, back on track - right! So, being in the community, I see a lot of what goes on and the struggles a lot of us face; such as family building. And at IVF Treatment Abroad, we've always believed that all our patients should be treated equally, and we always will, regardless of your gender, race or sexuality. There is no judgement from us - we are a safe space for you, and we will always support you on your journey.
Unfortunately, due to country laws, we are limited on who we are able to treat. However, we are constantly looking to expand our services to include ALL kinds of LGBTQ patients, and give you all a better, cheaper, and safer experience as you work to increase your family. There are many options out there, but what we want is to make sure that we provide the best possible service to you while reassuring you that you are in good hands, and have the best care available. Just as we would any other patient.
It's time to celebrate who you are, folks. This month belongs to us, no matter what anyone else says. We live as our own people, and are allowed to live as who we are. Always be proud, and always know that we are supported by so many. I love y'all.
PEACE OUT!

​Just for clarity, in the instances we talking about we are looking at patients traveling abroad, either for IVF or Egg Donation.
I suppose, technically we are an agency, but I intensely dislike that title when it comes to our services as it seems so impersonal, something which we are most categorically not.
There are basically two types of agencies out there looking to assist you on your IVF journey. Those that can advise from a medical standpoint, and those that provide emotional support (but in most cases not medical) because they themselves have been on their own IVF roller coaster.

When I Googled IVF Agencies, you either end up with the clinics themselves, or you get a corporate entity that's affiliated with clinics in 30 or 40 different countries. And you never, ever are given prices on the website. You have to call them to find out what they charge on top of the clinic's costs, but is a fairly safe bet that it will be in the thousands. 
The chances are, that this type of company will look at your medical history and advise the type of treatment/s necessary, and offer a selection of clinics to consider. Then it will be down to you to do the real leg work and research the clinics themselves. Why are you paying them a large sum of money, when you are putting in all the effort? How on earth can they give you the personalised attention that you need when they are offering such a large selection of clinics? Easy answer; they can't!
And because they are dealing with so many different countries, can you be sure that the information you are being given is correct. Clinical protocols, rules, and laws are forever changing;  anything from needing a permit between a certain age group to a country raising its upper age limit for treatment, and the chances are, that it will be you who will have to navigate your way through these obstacles.
The second group almost certainly will be able to empathise with your situation as they will most likely have been on their own IVF journey, and will be able to impart valuable knowledge about their own experiences. This is good as we also recommend speaking to our own past patients if you use our services. They can also explain their experiences of the clinic or clinics that they might have attended and what was good about them, or perhaps not so good.

Most of the above are happy not to charge for the information and help that they give you, but some of them do, and remember, you are highly unlikely to get any medical advice. And if you do, please bear in mind that what may have worked for them, won't necessarily work for you, and it might be detrimental to your health.
We came across one such UK company, that if you took them up on an initial consultation, their promotional videos, assistance locating a clinic abroad, and all the other things that they offer, it would come to between £3,000 and £4,000. Now that is if you took them up on every single one of their offers, and it is highly unlikely that you would need that, but still, it's easy to get caught up and treatment is expensive enough. On top of that, there is no medical advice and they are only available during office hours.

Now take a look at what we offer and decide for yourself if I am good value for money:
- A fertility nurse specialist since 1992.
- Working with clinics abroad since 2004
- Personally co-ordinating and supporting you throughout your treatment and beyond.
- Able to make medical decisions outside clinical hours.
- Available seven days a week, 365 days a year.
- Prescriptions arranged with home delivery if needed.
- Vast knowledge of protocols and laws of foreign clinics.
- Member of ESHRE (European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology)
- All inquiries are answered within 12 hours (during the day, within an hour).
- Past patient chats.
- Most donor types available on a one-to-one basis (no egg sharing).
- Proven donors.
- All clinics personally vetted.

But there is so much more than just the hard medical aspect. My husband and I were lucky enough to have our daughter through natural means, but to me, this was never just a job. I can never fully appreciate what you have to go through, and I would never try. But when patients ask me to be a Godparent I feel that I have instilled enough trust in my abilities to have scratched the surface.
So how much would this level of expertise and care be worth to you?

​I had planned to do this conclusion right after we posted the last part of our egg donation series but as some of you may have heard events at home took over with my husband, Simon suffering a mild stroke, admitted to hospital but thankfully back home now and then my daughter and I catching Covid (and not feeling very well with it!). Life has been busy, but we are all getting back on track now.
I have always had this link and attachment to egg donation treatment from those early days through to now. Yes. it has evolved in both the use of identity released as well as anonymous donors as well as the increase in success rates with the advent of blastocyst transfer. The biggest change and the one I am most proud of is its acceptance in fertility treatment. It is talked about; it is seen as an option that can be considered if the use of one’s own eggs is not possible for whatever reason. There is not the same ‘hush, hush’ stigma that was around when I started helping patients undergo this treatment and for that I am very thankful. I think about the hundreds (if not thousands!) of children I have helped come into the world because of this form of treatment and it makes me happy. I see a lot of them grow up as I have remained friends with a lot of my patients and see these children as they pass those first milestones of walking and talking right through to the university students there are now.
Simon has always said that this isn’t just a job to me but a vocation, and he should know after being with me for over 30 years. He was there from the start when I first found out about this type of nursing, went for the interviews, and was offered those first jobs. He has been with me through the ups and downs, the job changes, setting up our company, IVF Treatment Abroad, the pandemic when we had to seriously consider if we would have to stop. I couldn’t have done any of this without him, so I think that I want to make this end of series blog post a thank you to him. Honey, love you lots and let’s try to have another 30 years together!
For those on their fertility journey, just go for it, don’t wait for the right time as that time might never come. If we can help in any way, please do not hesitate to contact us. You lose nothing in having a chat and ensuring you have the right information to decide what is right for you.

This piece was started before Simon was admitted to hospital following a minor stroke. This was completed once he arrived back home with us, but it is still relevant today. As of 4am GMT+2, there have been 24,000 reported deaths and  10 million people displaced. Those are horrifying figures, and this is in no way over yet. Please remember that, whatever else is going on in life. These people did nothing to deserve what is being brought upon them. - Blog Manager, Emily.

 "I know that blog posts are meant to reflect what we do, and in certain respects, this is related to our aims and objectives. To help couples and single women achieve their dream of being able to start a family but as the co-founder of IVF Treatment Abroad and the "rebel" of the team, I feel that it is important that our patients and that anyone who reads our blogs know how I feel about current world events. 
Up until a few weeks ago, we had a patient lined up to receive treatment in Ukraine. The current situation has now dashed this couple's dreams unless we can find somewhere else for them to have the treatment that they are looking for.
I'm not highly educated. I have no degrees or Ph.D.'s. Just your average everyday life experience, but I do know when something is fundamentally wrong. And there really is. World and geo-politics are something way above my paygrade, but not my emotions. So trying to fathom what Putin is trying to achieve as an ultimate goal is confusing. Is his ultimate aim to try and succeed where Hitler failed (mainly due to Russia's efforts in WW2), or does he really want just Ukraine territory? And if so, for what reason? Probably strategic, and not because he needs more land.

 There have been many conflicts and wars before, since, and after 1945, all of which were unnecessary, particularly to the innocents having to endure them. And it is this disregard for human life that fucks me off the most. Most of us want to live in harmony, in peace and hopefully to grow stronger as a race. Our world is not perfect and it never will be. It probably never was. From the beginning of time, there has been a conflict of some form, be it on a bacterial level, dinosaurs, or possibly the most dangerous level, us.
This situation makes me feel angry, but more than that, sad. The cost of human and animal lives on both sides. The Russian soldiers were told that they were liberating a country that had been overrun by sadistic forces, and that the people of Ukraine would welcome them with flowers for driving these forces of evil out of their country. Lies. All of it is total bullshit. But this is the nature of the communist brainwashing psyche. Ukraine according to Russia wants to become (or possibly is) a nuclear-armed superpower. Ohh pleeease!
You can either believe what the Russian leadership is saying, or what most of the rest of the world knows to be true. We are looking at a country with no ambitions of domination over any other country, one with beautiful architecture and one that wants to be left in peace. Have no doubt that they will do everything that they can to try and find a peaceful resolution to the conflict, but that they will also defend their country to the last man and the last bullet.

 And when people are targeted because he doesn't like the things being said about him. A hit squad was targeted against a Sky news team. In effect, an assassination team was sent out to kill Stuart Ramsey and his production team. Driving up to what they thought was a Ukrainian checkpoint, they came under heavy fire. Hundreds of rounds were fired into their vehicle, and even when they identified themselves as being with the press, the firing continued. Ramsey himself was shot in the leg with the bullet exiting his lower back, whilst the others only suffered abrasions and minor lacerations. This was not warfare. It was attempted murder. Fortunately, Stuart despite his injuries will make a full recovery and intends to return to Ukraine when he can. The only slightly humorous thing about this situation was that the car rental company refused to give them their deposit against damages back. 
Shit like this should not be happening in our so-called modern world. Whilst any war is deplorable, there will always be idiots that are hungry for power and for money. If it is for personal gain, it's kind of hard to spend it when you're in a wooden box. If it's for your country, how do you really want to be remembered? At the moment Mr. Putin, you are a pariah to 99% of the world and savior is not the word we would associate with this atrocity." 

 Most of us want to live our lives in peace. There are global goals to explore space together and Olympic athletes from different nations train together. The joy of seeing the Dutch and Belgian speed skaters celebrate their races was a revelation. This is a simplistic view, but it makes me feel better. That there can be unity and comradeship. You just have to have the right frame of mind.
Would he have attacked Ukraine if they had been a part of NATO? Doubtful, but now NATO can do little without escalating the situation. Here's where it gets difficult. I'd like nothing more than to bomb the shit out on that big Russian convoy and to take out his air force. But at what cost when you are dealing with a mad man.
I wish I could write something more positive and meaningful about this situation but all I can really say is that I for one stand with the people of Ukraine. I hope that you do too."

​Image/art piece by me, Emily Pellow.

​When travelling any distance for treatment you need to consider what your travel looks like and how long it will take as that may play a part in where to go for treatment too. As I was reminded by a patient the other day, don’t just look at flight times but look at your journey from home to the airport and the other end as that may add on a chunk of time.
The last two years with the pandemic have been crazy for so many of us for so many reasons. Some of us have lost loved ones (I am so thankful that I did not but know how lucky I am), some of us have lost livelihoods (it has certainly been a hard slog for us over the last two years, but we are still here!) but for others, it is the loss of time on their fertility journey. In some cases, it has been a loss of funding for treatment due to a change in their age or a loss of ovarian function over those two years that might have made the difference between being able to have our own genetic child or not. Not being able to access treatment in home countries and the fear of travelling or the restrictions in travel has been huge. We are thankful that our Australian patients are now able to start planning treatment and we hope to see them and everyone else soon as more and more countries relax travel requirements. We can see more and more people looking to have treatment this year.
Vaccinations for COVID is a requirement for some countries to enter though in most cases either proof of vaccination or recent negative test is both permitted for entry. This is one question I will ask anyone I speak to so that I can ensure that getting to the country is possible as I appreciate that some people are not vaccinated and again, this is a personal choice.
I feel I have become part travel agent over the last two years, knowing the travel requirements for multiple countries with updates on a daily, weekly, or biweekly basis! It isn’t so hard now, but I can see this aspect of my role continuing for some time to come and be assured we do bear changing circumstances in mind at all points of treatment and aim to be able to alter treatment dates as necessary at short notice.