LONDON – Campaigners were celebrating yesterday after learning the British government is set to provide money for thalidomide victims.
Under a deal to be announced soon, the British department of health will pay a grant of £20 million (€22.5 million) over three years to the Thalidomide Trust, which dispenses aid to people disabled by the drug.
Pregnant women were prescribed thalidomide in the 1950s and 1960s as a treatment for morning sickness or insomnia. It was withdrawn from sale in 1961 after babies were born with limb deformities and other damage.
The drug’s UK manufacturer, Distillers Biochemicals, paid about £28 million compensation in the 1970s following a legal battle by the families of those affected.
Under the new settlement, the grant will be reviewed after three years but it is expected to be continued for the lifetimes of those affected by the drug.
The deal follows a campaign backed by the Sunday Timesto secure financial support for the UK's 463 surviving "thalidomiders", many of whom are unable to work and require adapted homes and cars. It is also hoped a further £5 million could be provided if the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland contribute, according to campaigners.
Thalidomide campaigner Guy Tweedy (47) said British health minister Mike O’Brien had agreed to the deal following negotiations.
“This is a significant day in the long-running battle to get a fair and just settlement for the victims of this wicked drug,” he said. “Our campaign, which was fought with dignity and determination, has always been about justice and not entitlement . . . For more than 50 years we have had to live with the consequences of our mothers taking this ‘wonder drug’. Little did they know the damage it would do to the unborn child in the womb.”
He said the campaign estimated that “at least 1,000 babies were born with deformities brought about directly by this drug, and more than half of them died within their first year”.
Over the past seven years, Mr Tweedy and fellow thalidomider Nick Dobrik have met 150 MPs, including Mr O’Brien and former British health secretary Alan Johnson. – (PA)