Australia And NZ Thalidomiders Awarded £28.5M Compensation From British Manufacturer
The deal, which will see the 45 survivors receive $3m per year for 20 years, comes after two and a half years of negotiations between Ken Youdale, the father of a thalidomide victim, and Diageo, which took over the distributor of thalidomide in the 1960s.
In 1974, Australia’s thalidomide victims received what was supposed to be a full and final payment for their deformities caused by the drug.
However, the payments proved to be insufficient to last the course of their lives, and following the success of thalidomide survivors in Britain in reaching a new settlement, Mr Youdale, 86, sought more compensation.
Mr Youdale, who served as an airman in the Second World War, took up the fight after his daughter Nicole was born with birth defects as a result of the drug, which her mother took to combat morning sickness.
After Nicole died in 2003, at the age of 40, from the effects of thalidomide, Mr Youdale travelled to London to meet Diageo executives.
“I was able to say: ‘Look, this is actually what it’s costing these people to live today. Where do you think they’re getting the money to go on from?'” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“The British company said: ‘Well, we have no liability for that because we did a different arrangement in Australia. We didn’t have a continuing trust operation, you inherited the money at a certain age, which was 25, and how you spent it was your responsibility but nevertheless we’ll look at the situation’.”
Thanks to Mr Youdale’s dogged persistence, a deal was finally reached last week.
“All I know is that my daughter would be very, very thrilled to think that I had done this for all the remaining people,” he said.
Thalidomide, first introduced as a sedative for pregnant woman, was originally distributed by The Distillers Company in the 1950s and caused severe birth defects, such as foreshortened limbs, in thousands of children.
Same Difference 
I WAS BORN IN UNITED STATES-LOUISIANA A THALIDOMIDE VICTIM AND I HAVE NEVER RECEIVED ANY HELP OF ANY KIN AND NO COMPENSATION AT ALL. I NEVER KNEW IT WAS SO MANY THALIDOMIDES LIKE MYSELF. HOWEVER, IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW CAN GIVE ME SOME INPUT ON THIS PLEASE CALL OR E-MAIL ME AR 318-547-6709 AS MY HEART SO GOES OUT TO THE MANY OTHER VICTIMS AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALL : GLENDA
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I MET MR HARRELSON A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO AND HE AS WELL AS MYSELF IS A THALIDOMIDE SURVIVIOR WHICH WAS BORN IN THE UNITED STATES AND NITHER OF OF US HAVE RECEIVED ANY HELP OR COMPENSATION IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW CAN HELP PLEASE LET HIM KNOW: THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS:
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I’m a thalidomider born in 1959 in Norfolk, VA. My Mother never thought there was any legal recourse. I sure hope there is.
Thanks.
J. Merica
Burbank, CA.
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