Two members of the Jewish community in Manchester are said to be “in shock” after discovering they were the biological children of a retired NHS scientist, working in the Oldham laboratory of the test-tube pioneer, Dr Patrick Steptoe.
Roz Snyder, now 52, thought she was the daughter of Eddie Kravitz and his wife Doreen. Her mother died when Roz was just 12 and she was brought up by her father. She knew that her parents had had difficulties in conceiving and was aware that they had consulted Dr Steptoe, who achieved international fame for his work leading to the birth of the first “test tube” baby, Louise Brown.
But nobody told Mrs Snyder that in fact her biological father was Roy Hollihead, who ran the pathology lab at the hospital where Dr Steptoe held his fertility clinic. She is not even sure if her parents knew that Dr Steptoe, who died in 1988, had frequently asked colleagues to donate sperm, a practice Mr Hollihead said was the case with “lots” of medical staff. Crucially, however, no records were kept of the donations.
Mrs Snyder only discovered what had happened after joining Ancestry.com, a genealogical DNA site, at the prompting of one of her sons. To her astonishment a result came back indicating that Mr Hollihead was “either her father or her son” — and that she had at least two other half-siblings.
One of those has been named as David Gertler, 51, who had also registered with ancestry.com. He believed his father was Jan Gertler, a Holocaust survivor who hid from the Nazis in the Budapest ghetto and arrived in Britain in 1956 after the Hungarian uprising.
Jan Gertler married his wife Sara and set up a successful business in Manchester. Like the Kravitzes, the Gertlers had conception issues and so were directed to Dr Steptoe, known throughout the area as “the miracle doctor”, helping many young couples who had virtually given up hope, to start a family.
And the consultation worked: David Gertler was born in July 1973. By complete coincidence he and Roz Kravitz, as she then was, knew each other as teenagers and even went out on a couple of double dates.
When David Gertler wanted to know more about his Hungarian Jewish roots, he signed up with ancestry.com — and, like Roz, was devastated to discover that his father was not his father and that he was the result of sperm donated by Roy Hollihead.
Both David Gertler and Roz Snyder told the Daily Telegraph that they did not believe their parents knew about the illicit sperm donation. Instead, they say that their mothers were impregnated without knowledge or consent.
When Mrs Snyder made contact with Roy Hollihead, now 84, he told her “I used to work with Dr Steptoe up to and after the birth of Louise Brown [the] first test tube baby. He arranged clinics on Saturday privately, I think to help with fertility. He organised a liquid nitrogen sperm bank which was kept in the laboratory. He used sperm from lab staff, medical students and doctors…”
Mr Hollihead added: “No records of any [babies] were kept. Not necessary in those days! If your mother attended there, then this is possible.”
