Dr Juliet Skinner, through her world class IVF Centre in Barbados, is a doctor with a mission to assist couples experiencing difficulties with fertility realise their dream of becoming parents.

Dr Skinner has helped create 150 miracle babies in Barbados and 1,000 others worldwide through the procedure used at the clinic.

But Skinner, the Consultant Gynaecologist at the Barbados Fertility Centre, admits to writer Renee Cummings that what she has been able to achieve was not without its challenges.

She spoke with Cummings at the clinic.

It was an avid reader, Patricia Frederick, who first told me about Helen Hypolite.

She had observed Hypolite's kindness to numerous patients while visiting the Port of Spain General Hospital on several occasions, and although she did not know her personally she felt she would be a great candidate for the popular Real Women Real Stories series.

Although Frederick had always seen Hypolite smiling and helpful to the patients, she was unaware that beneath the brave smile was the broken heart of a woman who had

suffered major tragedies in her life.

With Frederick's assistance we were able to contact Hypolite who was surprised we wanted to interview her. She felt she was just an ordinary security guard doing her job and there was nothing special about her. . . but we thought differently.

Writer Lorraine Waldropt-Ferguson went to the hospital and sat and observed Hypolite's interaction with patients without her knowledge and came to the same conclusion as Frederick—that she was indeed a special woman.

How special was later revealed when Waldropt-Ferguson discovered that Hypolite had lost her mother, her son and her daughter to murder.

Somehow, this unique woman remained strong and still got up every day, put one foot in front the other and got on with the business of life, while still going the extra mile to assist others.

She is in my view quite deserving of the title of Real Woman.

No fear, just faith, and please remember be kind to each other.

Editor

Angela Martin

Please send all comments to

angela.martin-hinds@trinidadexpress.com