Every day is a challenge for thalidomide survivor Maggie Woods. From when she wakes up until she lays her head down at night she must deal with situations that most of us take for granted.
“A day doesn’t go by without I being aware of my disability,” says the mother of two grown up sons who was born with short arms and is 3’ 8” in height. “Every day is a challenge from opening doors to going to the bathroom. I have to do nearly everything differently. My body is the size of a child’s. I have learned to open doors, turn keys and lift a saucepan of spuds with my teeth. I pull floor to ceiling curtains in the same way.
“I’m used to it now. Each day I get up I put on my clothes and make-up and a particular ‘suit of armour’ to face the day.”
Originally from Killybegs, Co Donegal, she settled in Galway 23 years ago and is one of 32 acknowledged thalidomide survivors in Ireland. They were born with various disabilities after their mothers took Thalidomide - medication marketed as a treatment for morning sickness during pregnancy - and licenced for sale in Ireland early in 1959.
Officially withdrawn
Maggie, who works as a supervisor with the Irish Wheelchair Association in Tuam, says her mother has been very supportive of her but has never spoken about the drug which continued to be available in Ireland long after it was officially withdrawn from the market in November 1961.
“My sister was telling me that my mother when she was pregnant got this tablet from the chemist. Then later, babies were being born with deformities and she was reading about it in the paper. There were about 12 to 15 names the drug could be under. She got the jar and brought it down to the chemist who said she had only taken two [tablets]. I was born a month early and shock, horror! If the Government had done what it should have done and withdrew the drug I’d have missed it. Instead they left it for seven months.”
She says the local school would not accept her, because of her size, she presumes.
“I was tiny, the size of two roasted potatoes! I was sent [to be educated] at St Joseph’s Hospital in Coole, Co Westmeath. It was like an institution. I was there until I was 19.”
Maggie says the “worst years” of her life were spent in the centre.
“It was hard and very sad. Not a lot of people would be aware of that because of the way I present myself, so positively. People expect I grew up in an encouraging environment.
“When I was there I was in a bubble, everybody had a disability. I was not conscious of being different because of where I was, I was sheltered.”
She went home on holidays three times a year. “I was away so much my youngest sister didn’t realise I was part of the family.”
Toe on the bus
The centre closed when Maggie was 19 years old so she returned home to Co Donegal. “I couldn’t settle. My mother was so protective of me, I couldn’t handle it. I pretended to her I was going to Dublin for the weekend. Once I put my toe on the bus I was gone. My friend organised for me to stay with somebody and I enrolled in a communications course in college.”
She was as free as a breeze and loved every minute of it. “I had a brilliant life. I had such freedom, I was going to discos and later met my future husband. He lived in the same house, I was in the basement and he was on the first floor.
“I used to get lots of phone calls but the phone was too high for me to reach. We became friends and married. However, the marriage did not last.”
Maggie was getting tired of Dublin - “it was so fast, so big and unfriendly”. After spending a weekend in Galway and “having a ball” she decided to move here. Her fiancee joined her shortly afterwards and they were married in 1988.
“We went on honeymoon to Cyprus and I came back pregnant. I had a great pregnancy, I was never sick.”
Her first son, who is now 21, was born by caesarean section and weighed seven and a half pounds. She is full of praise for her obstetrician, the late Professor Fergus Meehan, who provided excellent care, she says.
Bringing up a baby
She found it challenging bringing up a baby. Everything from feeding and changing him to putting him to bed required thought and ingenuity.
“I had a special cot made with the sides opening out instead of up and down.”
She had another son a year later. “I had two babies with 19 months between them. The only thing I couldn’t do was bathe them.”
People have told her that her positive “can do” attitude and determination is an inspiration, she says.
“A lot of people tell me they get great courage from me, they say I’m an inspiration. I’ve achieved a lot but I do have down moments. I’m in my forties now and have good days and weepy days. I’m having to contend with additional stuff on top of everything else. My arms are not as strong as they used to be because I’ve had to use my body in a way I shouldn’t have. I used to be 3’8” but I’ve shrunk by an inch.”
