It wasn't until he was nine that he found out just how special he was.
Alastair (29) is a medical marvel, being the first ever IVF boy and the first baby born through IVF in Scotland.

Friday, July 25, marks the 30th anniversary of IVF, when the original 'test-tube' baby, Louise Brown, celebrates her milestone birthday.

Alastair, who grew up in Denny, discovered his unusual beginnings by chance when Dr Patrick Steptoe, who pioneered IVF with colleague
Professor Bob Edwards, died in 1988.

Alastair had known Patrick as an uncle, and Louise and her parents were also firm family friends. On seeing news coverage of Patrick's death Alastair figured out he was also a test-tube baby.

He said: "I put two and two together and for once in my life was right."

It took Alastair's mum Grace (61) two attempts to become pregnant through IVF, a process where the female egg cells are fertilised outside the womb.

Talking from her home in Denny, the former Forth Valley College lecturer said: "For me, this started a lot longer than 30 years ago. I started on the programme in 1975, and it took me until 1978 to become pregnant.

"At the time I was reading everything I could about infertility, and it was a complete fluke that I read the article on IVF in a medical journal.

''The article was about how far Patrick had come in developing new techniques."

Grace wrote to Patrick and then went to Oldham to take part in the trials.

She said: "There had never been any successes with IVF at this point, so we had to keep it very quiet.

''It was the only chance we had, and I was very aware that anything in the press at that time was very condemning of it rather than seeing the benefits it could give.

"It was totally nerve-wracking right from the start. I was the only one out of 21 on the trial that it worked for."

Alastair was born a month premature in Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow on January 14, 1979, weighing exactly the same as Louise did when she was born – 5lb 12oz.

Grace said: "I didn't know how people would react. I was just concerned about being a mum and didn't want my baby to be looked at as anything different.

"But everyone was lovely and there were only a very few who looked on the negative side.

''I came out of hospital to find the whole street taken over with TV cameras and reporters, which made me more determined to let Al grow up like every other child."

Alastair's parents moved from Lennoxtown to Denny when Alastair was six months old. His parents then split up when he was four.

Attending Nethermains Primary School in the village, and then Dollar Academy, Alastair had a very normal childhood.

He said: "When my friends found out they were really intrigued about it. It was only later on in high school that people made jokes about it, but it was never malicious, people were just curious."

Alastair, who now lives in Glasgow, attended Aberdeen University after school and graduated in electrical and electronic engineering. He is now part of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Service, a job which has taken him to the Middle East and mainland Europe.

This week Alastair and Louise began marking their birthdays by visiting the Bourn Hall clinic in Cambridgeshire, which was founded by the IVF pioneers.

Today more than three million children have been born thanks to the technology and IVF remains one of the most remarkable medical breakthroughs of the 20th century.

Grace said: "Think of all the families who would not have children if it was not for Patrick and Bob."