A determined Thalidomide campaigner from Southport has been recognised in the New Year’s Honours List.
Teresa Smith, 62, has been celebrated for her lifetime’s work as a Medallist of the Order of the British Empire for services to Thalidomide patients and research in Merseyside.
Teresa says she is lucky to be alive after being born as ‘a Thalidomide baby’ and is keen to see a memorial built for all the babies who died as a result of the controversial drug.
Teresa was born on 12 October 1960 with short arms and no legs due to her mother being given the controversial drug during pregnancy.
Thalidomide, made by German firm Grunenthal, was sold in the 1950s as a cure for morning sickness. It was linked to birth defects including shortened arms and legs, blindness, deafness, heart problems and brain damage and was withdrawn in 1961.
A friend told Stand Up For Southport: “Teresa continues to make a massive contribution to society and to support those most in need both in the UK and abroad. She is an extraordinary person.
“Teresa has spent her lifetime working for those marginalised both here and abroad with her work in palliative care, social work for those with lifelong disability and in significant poverty.
“As a part of her social enterprise and a testament to her perseverance, Teresa has worked in the orphanages in the Philippines and has encouraged and supported many young orphans to be educated and graduate from university to enter the workforce and develop new life skills and with it a better life altogether.
“Teresa has brought about many positive life changing experiences for people with the repair and purchase of wheelchairs for orphans in Malawi, Africa.
“It is there that Teresa is looking to raise funds for the development of a school and industrial dress-making centre to foster growth, skills and personal development for those in these developing nations.”
Teresa is one of life’s battlers. She has fought all her life not just for herself, but also for others.
When her Mum died, aged 94, she was able to tell her on her deathbed that she was a survivor and that Diagio and Grunenthel, that had made the drug, “hadn’t beaten us”.
Teresa was born in what was classed as the Sunshine Houses in Bedford Road in Walton in Liverpool.
Her father was called Joseph and he was from Kirkdale in Liverpool and her mother, Teresa, was from OMeath in County Louth in Ireland. She grew up with her big sister Annette who is 16 months older.
Teresa said: “My mother was looking forward to having her second baby and she opted to have me at home so that she could be close to my sister, who was only a toddler.
“However, the plan of normal pregnancy did not quite aspire to what my mother thought would be a wholesome baby to be delivered.
“I was born with short arms and no legs and later diagnosed as a Thalidomide baby.
“In the 1960s there were no scans so this was a big shock to the midwife and the doctor.
“The midwife was called Rose Clarken.They struck up a friendship because of their Irish ethnicity.
“I later learned by Rose that she suspected something was wrong because she couldn’t feel my legs whilst being examined.
“My mum kept saying ‘why are you keeping checking me’. Rose very politely told her ‘I am just coming for a cup of tea so I may as well check you’. Indeed this midwife Rose saved my life; because the doctor panicked and so she delivered me.
“I was only given three minutes to live and she rushed me to a hospital.
“I was there for three years having been a very sick baby and many operations to follow.”
Teresa was indeed lucky to survive.
The total number of people affected by Thalidomide use during pregnancy is estimated at 10,000, of whom about 40% died around the time of birth.
Teresa then endured several operations at Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool, which were innovative and experimental.
She went on to study at Greenbank School near Sefton Park in Liverpool.
There were 12 Thalidomide children in Liverpool; so the Liverpool local authority merged them into Dovecot Junior School until the age of 11. She then went toSt Wilfrid’s High School in Litherland.
After leaving school she went to college in Crosby and did some further education in maths and English before becoming a secretary for the Liverpool Echo. She then moved to Giro Bank in Bootle.
After attending a worldwide Thalidomide conference, she became impressed because many countries were counselling the Thalidomide survivors.
She then trained as a counsellor.
Teresa said: “I thought this would be a very good way forward because I could put my skills and knowledge to good use and support enabled families.
“I then got my first job as a social worker in Liverpool City Council where I had a successful career spanning 25 years.
“I have been very lucky. I have done a tremendous amount of travelling. My sister always used to say ‘how can someone with no legs travel as much as you have?’
“I certainly did have that bug and still have.
“I travelled to the Philippines and was taken back by the poverty there, so I collaborated with the ladies I met in church and they introduced me to the children that they had in her orphanage. I became very attached to the children and indeed two of the boys chose me as their mother. “They were only seven years of age and now they are in their 20s and they still call me Mum.
“I feel I have been truly blessed by utilising the skills I have to change people’s lives.”
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