A Shropshire woman has vowed to continue her fight for fertility treatment after making an emotional face-to-face plea to health bosses for help.

Janine Macallister told the board of NHS Telford and Wrekin that she felt she was being discriminated against.

But members approved a revised fertility policy which maintains a clause stating that “neither partner shall have children by existing or any previous relationship”.

Mrs Macallister, 27, of Newport, said after the meeting that she was prepared to take her case to the European Court of Human Rights.

She has also lodged papers with the health service ombudsman.

Mrs Macallister says she is being denied treatment because her husband Jason has children from a previous relationship.

She told the board that she had written to every primary care trust and discovered that half have policies which would allow treatment if one of the partner’s already had children.

Mrs Macallister drew members attention to a statement in the policy that said if the criteria was changed, the trust would face a 20 to 25 per cent increase in costs of treatment, between £80,000 and £100,000 a year. For Shropshire County Primary Care Trust, which shares the policy, the extra cost would be between £100,000 and £120,000.

This, she said, showed that there were other couples in a similar position and that the policy needed to be changed.

She said she was facing the “same illness” as other women who were receiving treatment, but she was being denied it because of her husband’s children.

“I am the one who is infertile. I am the one in need of treatment, not him,” said Mrs Macallister. “I am feeling discriminated against. I am in exactly the same position as other women who are being treated.”

She said 214 people had signed a petition supporting her case and claimed that at least 30 other couples in Telford & Wrekin were facing the same issue.

A report said that the policy had been reviewed by the priorities committee and professional executive committee and it was felt that the criteria should remain unchanged.

Trust chairman Brian Taylor told Mrs Macallister that under the policy, consultants could still make a case for patients to be treated as exceptions.

By Dave Morris