Dilys Cossey

"Dilys Cossey, OBE, a Brook Board member 1984-2001 and Chair 1995-2001, has been a leading campaigner for over 40 years at national and international levels on birth control, abortion and reproductive rights.

"As Secretary of the Abortion Law Reform Association (1964-68) she was a member of the team which worked to reform the abortion law. In the 1970s as General Secretary of the Birth Control Campaign she ran the successful campaign for wider voluntary vasectomy and free NHS contraception and subsequently worked with the Birth Control Trust. From 1979-1994 she was the founder administrator/researcher for the UK All-party Parliamentary Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health and from 1995-2000 manager of IPPF European Network's Parliamentarians' Project.

"From 1987-1993 she was chair of the Family Planning Association and from 2001-2004 chair of Population Concern/Interact Worldwide. From 1997-2003 she was a Board member of Ipas, an American NGO specialising in women's reproductive health.

"She was awarded the OBE in 1994, and in 2000 the Faculty of Family Planning and Reproductive Health made her an Honorary Fellow."