Simone Baker

Simone Baker is a UK thalidomider who has always worked and fought to live her life as little affected as possible by her impairments. In particular she talks about her careers, motherhood and relationships. She gives a poignant account of how, as a new mother, she was suddenly faced with physical limitations and forced to ask for help for the first time in her life. Another striking part of her life involved a car accident which occurred on holiday with her husband and daughter in France. This again changed her perspective on what she could do. After breaking up with her husband, Simone lived as a single mother and became involved in internet dating, discovering her identity and building her confidence. She now lives with a long-term partner and is still very actively involved in the thalidomide world. Parts 1 and 2 of the interviews took place in Simone’s home in Reading on 26 June 2012. Part 3 took place in Simone’s home on 6 July 2012.

2012

11 audio files

These recordings have been licensed by the Wellcome Trust for public use under Creative Commons Attribution-non commercial-Share Alike 3.00 UK. This means that anyone based in the UK can share and remix the material, as long as it is for non-commercial purposes. Credits, where given, should be to the library at Wellcome Collection, London. (c) Wellcome Trust.