>>137928 [Why "don't touch them, don't give them anything" was the practice with pregnant women until recently]
About Us We are the Thalidomide Trust
Welcome to the Thalidomide Trust, a registered charity, supporting a unique community of people who are living with disabilities as a result of their mothers taking the drug, thalidomide during the first three months of pregnancy. Primarily marketed under the brand name Distaval, thalidomide was licenced in the UK for less than four years before it was withdrawn, so our beneficiaries are all a similar age and experience similar issues and challenges – but they are definitely not all the same. The Thalidomide Trust was set up in 1973 as a discretionary Trust, as part of the £20 million legal settlement between Distillers Company Ltd and 429 children with thalidomide-related disabilities. Back then, we were called the Thalidomide Children’s Trust. Since then, we have accepted 543 people as beneficiaries. Sadly, 110 have passed away and today we’re supporting the 433 who remain. In 1997 Diageo (formed by a merger between Grand Metropolitan and Guinness, who took over Distillers in 1990) inherited the thalidomide legacy and has made a long term financial commitment to support the Thalidomide Trust and our beneficiaries for the rest of their lives.
