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04
May 2022
Harrogate Thalidomide campaigner lays wreath 60 years on
Harrogate Thalidomide campaigner Guy Tweedy has laid a wreath to pay tribute to victims of the morning sickness ‘wonder drug’.
Mr Tweedy placed the wreath at the foot of a copper beech tree planted on the Harrogate's Montpellier Hill in 2012.
The tree was the UK’s first-ever memorial to those who died as a result of their mothers being prescribed the drug in the early stages of pregnancy.
The wreath commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Thalidomide Society, which was formed in 1962 by the parents of children affected by the drug.
Mr Tweedy, who turns 60 in June and is himself a Thalidomider, is a prominent campaigner for the society.
The society was formed by parents of children affected by the drug in order to provide mutual support and seek compensation.
At least 2,000 babies in the UK were born due to Thalidomide, and more than half of them died within their first year. An unknown number also died in the womb.
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Common deformities included missing or shortened limbs, blindness, brain damage and missing internal organs.
442 UK Thalidomiders still alive
There are a total of 442 Thalidomiders aged between 56 and 63 still alive in the UK today.
Over the last two decades, Mr Tweedy - who sufferers from shortened arms and fingers fused together, has helped secure hundreds of millions of pounds from the government for the ongoing care of fellow survivors.
He said:
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