After a brief post-graduation flirtation with General Practice in 1982, Charles decided to pursue a career in gynaecology. After further study in London, Charles returned to Liverpool as Lecturer in the University Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 1989 and established the Reproductive Medicine Unit, which in 2002 would be renamed the Hewitt Fertility Centre after the late Jonathan Hewitt, a close friend and fellow alumnus of the University of Liverpool.
When Charles left the centre after 25 years, he said: “I am proud to have overseen the development and growth of the centre into one of the world’s foremost IVF units.”
Throughout his career he has performed over 50,000 consultations with couples and has personally performed many thousands of IVF cycles in NHS and private practice.
Charles has spent considerable time training the next generation of fertility doctors in the UK. He is Professor of Reproductive Medicine at the Postgraduate Medical Institute at Edge Hill University, and established sub-speciality training programmes within the Liverpool Women’s Hospital and Britain’s first master’s programme for Fertility Nurse Practice, collaborating with Edge Hill University.
He now works as the Clinical Director at CARE Fertility, Britain’s largest independent fertility group with 16 clinics nationwide, bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge to the centre. Of his career, Charles said: “I am very proud of my 30 years working in Liverpool and establishing the Reproductive Medicine Unit where I have trained many doctors, nurses and scientists in the speciality. However, what gives me most pride are the thousands of couples who I have helped to achieve the families they so longed for.”