Previous | Next :: 50 Years of the Thalidomide Generation : Westminster : London | May 27, 2012, 8:41 pm

Fifty years after the one of the worst disasters in medical drug company history. This weekend on Saturday night in central London, a dinner to mark 50 years of the thalidomide generation.

There are over 400 thalidomiders, as they call themselves, all of them in middle-age, born between 1958 and 1961 to mothers who unwittingly took the drug Distaval for morning sickness in the early months of pregnancy. The babies suffered a variety of deformities, mostly to both arms, both legs, or all four limbs. Some also suffered damage to their internal organs.

I had the privilege of attending this grand social held by the people still living with the effects of the thalidomide drug and their families.

They really are collectively an inspiring bunch. To have come through so much. Facing problems life throws up in a very matter of fact way and the special problems that only they face with the same inspiring expectation of over coming them.

It was a fun event. I was there with representatives of the Sunday Times (sponsor of the event) including the now legendary Sunday Times Editor Harold Evans. Under him the Sunday Times was a leading voice in demanding compensation and justice. Evans himself took the case all the way to the European court and won.

Picture shows Louise Medus Mansel Chair of the Thalidomide Society and her husband Darren Mansell with members of their family posing to have a group photograph made.

Cheers Jez XXXXXXXXXXXX

www.jezblog.com