Tertia Albertyn
The other half of Nurture’s dynamic duo, Tertia Albertyn co-founded Nurture with her BFF Melany Bartok in 2008.
A recovering infertile (who gave birth to now-teenage twins after her ninth IVF, and had one ‘freebie’ baby), Tertia has poured her heart and soul into this business.
Lover of Chardonnay, fruit chutney chips and Pokemon Go!, we get to know the fabulous Tertia and the “no-brainer” that was founding Nurture…
Describe in 10 words or less what you do at Nurture.
Look for new opportunities to grow the business
What does a typical day at Nurture look like for you?
Open my laptop and try to get on top of my emails. Which is a pretty daunting task. The emails never stop! And by the time they arrive in my inbox, it usually means it’s a tricky or difficult situation. Sorting out problem cases or tricky situations is the least favourite part of my job, but it needs to be done. Things can’t be all sunshine and roses all the time. I love numbers and figures and spreadsheets so as a reward for doing the difficult stuff, I spend some time invoicing and recording information in spreadsheets. I often have meetings, which is another not-so-fun part of my job. Not only because the travel time and the meeting time takes up so much of my valuable working day, but I am a bit (VERY!) antisocial so having to look up from my computer and actually speak to someone face to face is always a bit daunting for me.
What has been the highlight of your Nurture career?
There are so many!! I always say that I have the best job in the world. We get to help others have their ‘happily ever after’. Every single baby born through our program is a highlight for me. Whenever I am feeling particularly stressed, I go to our photo album and look at all the gorgeous baby pics sent from our happy recipients. Makes my day each time. Another thing I absolutely love is following the day to day lives of our recipients who I have become friends with on Facebook. I look at the shiny faces on the first day of school and the parents’ proud faces and my heart wants to burst with happiness. Having suffered from infertility myself I know what it is like to want to have a child and not be able to. When I read the seemingly ordinary day to day lives of our recipients, I know just how grateful they are to have all those usual ‘firsts’ and big moments as parents, moments they thought might never happen.
What was your day job before Nurture?
I worked for IBM as Communications Manager for one of their divisions.
How did you and Melany come to the idea of starting Nurture together?
Melany and I have been friends for over 20 years. In fact, I’ve known Melany longer than I have known my husband who I have been married to for 18 years! As I mentioned before, I suffered from infertility for many years. During this time Melany could see how much pain I was in, which obviously made her really heart sore too. She asked what she could do to help me. At the time my problem wasn’t my eggs, so she couldn’t help me, but I told her she could become an egg donor and help other people. Which she did. A few years later Melany worked for an international egg donor program. One day Melany and I were chatting and we realized that there was a need for a local egg donor agency who could provide excellent service and good quality egg donors to the local and the international market. Melany and I had worked together in the past, we shared the same passion and enthusiasm for life. Plus, Melany had personal experience as an egg donor and I had personal experience as an infertility patient. It was a no brainer. That was over 10 years ago and we have taken our ‘baby’ Nurture to great heights locally and internationally. We are very proud of our team.
Nurture recently celebrated its tenth anniversary – how different is the fertility landscape now from when you first started in the industry?
Some things are quite different, and others remain the same. Infertility still affects so many people. And there is as much of a need for donor eggs as there was back then. However, some things have changed. The technology has improved in leaps and bounds. The most exciting innovation has been around egg freezing. Sperm banks have been around for ages, but in the past egg banks weren’t an option. That has changed in the past few years and now Nurture has partnered with the country’s leading fertility clinic to offer frozen donor eggs to our recipients. Very exciting stuff!
If you could know the absolute and total truth to one question – what would you ask?
Wow, that’s tough. I would want to know things like: Why do babies die? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why haven’t we found a cure for cancer? But if I had to pick one, it would have to be: How does one survive the teenage years and stay sane?! (I have twin teenagers, and it is a pretty scary ride!)
What is in your picnic basket?
Chardonnay. More Chardonnay. Fruit chutney chips. Dip. Those yummy crackers made with lots of butter and sun-dried tomato from Woollies. Some stinky cheese.
What’s your superpower?
Doing a million things at once: Running a business, raising a family, surviving the teenage years, supporting my parents, serving on the PTA. All at once.
What gets you going in the morning?
Coffee! Plus getting 3 kids up and ready for school.
What are you doing when you’re not at work?
Playing Pokemon Go! My husband and I are big Pokemon addicts, and we spend most of our weekends meeting up with our Pokemon friends and playing the game together. It’s very social.
What is the one piece of advice that you have for a new egg donor?
Don’t be shy to boast about yourself on your profile. Donors with detailed, interesting profiles get chosen quicker. Recipients love to read everything you’ve written.
Describe the average Nurture egg donor in five words.
Amazing, strong, committed, giving, caring.
You and the team have scanned through hundreds of applications – what are the first things you look for in a potential donor?
By now we know which donors get chosen quicker. Donors with detailed profiles where they share a lot of info about themselves – their interests, hobbies, achievements, likes/dislikes etc. Recipients love that. Then, donors with a tertiary qualification are in high demand. Lastly donors with cute childhood pics definitely get chosen quicker. In the absence of meeting the donor face to face (because egg donation in South Africa has to be anonymous), all the recipients have to go on when they make their choice is what the donor has written about herself, what she has achieved academically or in her career and lastly, how she looked as a young child.
What is the one misconception about egg donation that you would wave a wand to clear up?
That donating your eggs uses up your own store of eggs, making it harder to have a baby one day. We are born with all the eggs we will ever have, and every month these eggs go to waste. Egg donation is using the eggs that would have gone to waste anyway. Instead of wasting them, you could be blessing future parents with the baby they long for.
What do you think the future holds for Nurture?
Lots of exciting things! Growing the frozen egg bank, and expanding internationally. Helping even more people have babies!
