Louise was born on 23rd June, 1962 at Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield, London. She died on 7th November, 2018 at Churchill Hospital, Oxford. Born with no arms and legs, due to the effects of the drug thalidomide which Louise’s mother took during pregnancy, Louise spent much of her early life at Chailey Heritage Craft […]
Author: Ruth
The Thalidomide Society wins National Lottery Support!
Thalidomide Stories: an Oral History of Thalidomide Survivors The Thalidomide Society has received National Lottery support from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for Thalidomide Stories – an Oral History of Thalidomide Survivors. Thanks to National Lottery players, the project will capture the voices of at least 46 thalidomide survivors over the course of […]
Skew-Whiff: An Asymmetric Memoir by Cas Bulmer
I have been working at writing my memoir for several years now and have attended several courses with the Arvon Foundation and The Guardian/UEA to try to improve my skills. My aim is to tell the story of the impact of three Distaval tablets on my whole family, particularly my parents. Whilst pulling in the […]
Conferring – a Two-Way Process: Reflections on the 2018 Thalidomide Society Conference
By Brian Payne, Trustee of the Thalidomide Society. In a previous life I was a conference organiser. These were mainly conferences about the early internet and other communications technologies – indeed my first, over 30 years ago, was on mobile phones. I was the proud user of one of those ‘bricks’… not much like the iPhone. […]
Taking Control of the Narrative
A review of Martin Johnson’s book, The Thalidomide Catastrophe by Geoff Adams-Spink (Chair of the Thalidomide Society) This is our story; it’s the story that we all know bits of, the story that sometimes gets exaggerated, muddled, or confused in the telling and retelling; it’s the story that we want others to read after we […]
Thalidomide Society trustee Kath West on school governance
By Kath West, Trustee of the Thalidomide Society and thalidomide survivor. I gave up working for health reasons when our boys were still at infants and junior school. My back was very bad at the time and I found it difficult getting out and about. Once my back problem started improving I was left […]
Thalidomide Society members make a huge difference to a Cambodian teenager
Srey Hang is a 15-year old girl living with her extended family in a typical Cambodian house on stilts, 10kms from the Thai border. She was born with extremely shortened arms, no hands or fingers and an absence of lower limbs, making her dependent upon her family for washing and hygiene, feeding and general mobility. […]
Buddhism and Me
By Stewart Lee, thalidomide survivor and current Vice Chair of the Thalidomide Society Those who know me personally will know that my life has been touched by Buddhism. I thought I would take this opportunity to tell you about it and how it has changed my outlook, how I regard and […]
Confessions of an Exhibitionist
By Geoff Adams-Spink I’d never really considered myself an exhibitionist – certainly not in the dirty mac sense in any case. Perhaps though my behaviour over the years tells another story. When Kathryn Rennie did the Thalidomide at Fifty Exhibition a decade ago, she photographed me naked from almost every angle because her original plan […]
Dr Turner’s Dilemma: Reflections of a Thalidomide Survivor and a Doctor’s Wife
By Catherine Diwaker I have read, and loved, all of Jennifer Worth’s books, my favourite actually being ‘In the Midst of Life.’ So when ‘Call The Midwife’ was televised it became our family’s regular Sunday evening viewing. A drama that my husband, daughters and I could watch and enjoy together. We learnt from Sister Julienne’s wisdom, […]