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OBE and former Paralympic swimmer Ellie Simmonds has spoken about how her mum was warned her daughter would suit the “circus” because of her dwarfism.
Simmonds’ documentary Ellie Simmonds: Finding My Secret Family revolves around the athlete looking into her birth parents as she was adopted when she was a baby.
The ITV special goes into the relationship between disability and adoption and delves into her own personal journey.
A few days after she was born, Simmonds was diagnosed with achondroplasia which is the most common form of dwarfism.
During her discovery of what happened in the early days of her life, Simmonds found an information sheet her birth mum was provided with following the diagnosis.
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In the clip from Finding My Secret Family, Simmonds is seen reading snippets from the information sheet, which explained what her birth mum could have supposedly expected.
The sheet says that those with dwarfism “tend to be muscular and acrobatic, which is perhaps the reason for them traditionally being involved in the circus and other forms of theatre when normal employment wasn’t available to them.”
The letter continued: “Children have to deal with being stared at and laughed at by other children.
“Indeed, there are those with normal height who equate short stature with evil and stupidity.”
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Speaking to Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty on BBC Breakfast, Simmonds said: “So that was given to my birth mum when she was vulnerable, when I had just been born really and she knew something was different about me.
“This letter stated information about having a person with dwarfism, a child…evil, circus, that type of stuff and gosh, that was 28 years ago, that wasn’t that long ago and the language that was used.
“I’ve never had a child so I don’t know what it’s like but I’m sure parents you’re vulnerable aren’t you?
“Just gone through the whole birth situation, you’re emotional and you get given this letter about your child that you have visions of what it’s going to be like and it’s scary.”
Simmonds continued to explain it is this kind of thinking that made her want to create the documentary in the first place.
“I haven’t gone through that, I’ve had the most fulfilled life and I think that’s why I’m so passionate about this documentary, because even now, in 2022 and 2023, the language is still getting used.
“We need to change that, we need to change disability to be seen as a positive because yes, we’re all different, let’s celebrate that.”
Ellie Simmonds: Finding My Secret Family premieres on Thursday, July 6, on ITV.
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