Tackling gender and health inequalities has always mattered to me

I was born in a small Indian village and, although my mother never had the opportunity to go beyond secondary school, she was passionate about education and equality. She believed deeply in the empowerment of women and has remained a constant inspiration throughout my life.

I began my medical studies as a teenager, graduating from medical school at 22, and I came to the UK in my mid-twenties, to work as a junior doctor in the NHS. I remember reading about the world’s first test tube baby in 1978, which was a medical sensation – little realising that I would get to know the IVF pioneer Professor Robert Edwards, who became a great supporter of my work and the patron of my charity, Health Equality Foundation. It has also been my privilege to work with Professor Stuart Campbell, pioneer of ultrasound in obstetrics and gynaecology, who became my mentor.

​I was drawn to reproductive medicine because nothing can be more rewarding than creating life. It is also about equality of opportunity, and I have always been passionate about making fertility treatments more natural, accessible and safer for women and children. That led me to pioneer mild and natural IVF. Affordability and fairness have always been my guiding principle - through my previous work with the Walking Egg Foundation, which brings low-cost IVF to developing countries, and in the UK where we created abc ivf to apply the same principles.

​I founded Health Equality Foundation in 2000 (previously known as Create Health Foundation), a health charity devoted to promoting an evidence-based, holistic, and supportive approach to improving women's healthcare, tackling health inequalities affecting BAME communities, and addressing social determinants of health. We work with policymakers and advisers to make a difference.