Welcome to my blog...

Enjoying my 50th birthday, rowing down the Thames with my family   October 2012

So it's only now half way through my journey to lose weight and to get fitter that I suddenly think how useful it might be to others for me to share my journey.

I'll share a little about myself for those who don't already know me.

I am Thalidomide impaired, a Thalidomider... a flid! 

Thalidomide was a tablet marketed in the late 50's and early 60's to combat the effects of morning sickness... given to many unsuspecting pregnant women with no clue as to one of it's most devastating side-effects.  I hesitate to say "unknown side effects" because actually there is evidence emerging now that in fact the German drug company (Chemie Grunethal) had been alerted plenty of times about damage to the unborn feotus.

But that is another story altogether.

Me as a baby, September 1962

I was one of those "Thalidomide babies", born in the September of 1962.  To an unsuspecting woman, my Mum.  Of course, one cannot imagine just how devastating that must have been and indeed, I may never really understand the full impact of having a baby as severely deformed as I was.  My Mum shares what she wants to about it.  As a Mum myself now, I can only imagine how her life was altered.

My Mum, Andree Simone Hortense Vaillant

Me at about age 3

Me, aged about 4 and one of my younger sisters, Michele

But my Mum, Andree, did a fantastic job of bringing me up.  I have two younger sisters who were born within three years of my birth, so my Mum had her work cut out!!!