Rosaleen (Rosie) Moriarty-Simmonds OBE (born 1960) is a British businesswoman, artist and disability rights campaigner. She was born without arms or legs after her mother was prescribed thalidomide in pregnancy. [1]
Rosaleen (Rosie) Moriarty-Simmonds OBE (born 1960) is a British businesswoman, artist and disability rights campaigner. She was born without arms or legs after her mother was prescribed thalidomide in pregnancy. [1]
She attended Ysgol Erw'r Delyn, a special school in Penarth, and from age 14 Treloar School in Alton, at that time the only school in the UK to offer an academic education for students with disabilities. [1] She was the first disabled student to enrol at Cardiff University, graduating in 1985 with a BSc degree in psychology. [1] [2]
After graduating Moriarty-Simmonds worked in the civil service at Companies House for seven years, at Executive Officer level. [1] [3] In 1995 she established RMS Disability Issues Consultancy, which offers training in Disability Issues. [4] She has appeared in many radio and television programmes, starting with an appearance in a television news bulletin at the age of two. [5]
She was one of the leading campaigners for the creation of the Thalidomide Memorial in Cathays Park, Cardiff, to commemorate the survivors of thalidomide and those who fought for justice for them, and made a speech at its unveiling in 2016. [6] [7]
In 2022 she became the High Sheriff of Glamorgan. [8]
She has taken up painting and has been accepted as a student member of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists. [2]
In 2007 she published her autobiography Four Fingers and Thirteen Toes (revised ed 2009 AuthorHouse UK, ISBN 978-1438942995).
She was appointed O.B.E. in the 2015 New Year Honours "For Services to the Equality and Rights of Disabled People". [9]
In 2017 Cardiff University awarded her an Honorary Fellowship, describing her as "a forthright and passionate speaker" who "has worked at the highest level ... to make significant changes in attitudes to disability". [10]
She married Stephen Simmonds, a solicitor, who is also Thalidomide impaired, in 1988. They have one son, born in 1995 after three earlier miscarriages. [1] [11] Her hobbies are photography and acting. [2]
Phocomelia is a congenital condition that involves malformations of human arms and legs which results in a flipper-like appendage. A prominent cause of phocomelia is the mother's use of the drug thalidomide during pregnancy; however, the causes of most cases are to be determined.
Carys Davina Grey-Thompson, Baroness Grey-Thompson,, known as Tanni Grey-Thompson, is a Welsh life peeress, television presenter and former wheelchair racer.
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Treloar School and College is a non-maintained residential and day special school and college for disabled children and young people, aged from 2 to 25 in Holybourne near Alton, Hampshire, UK.
Claudia Cockburn Flanders, OBE was an American-British disability activist who spent much of her working life in the United Kingdom.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the use of thalidomide in 46 countries by women who were pregnant or who subsequently became pregnant resulted in the "biggest anthropogenic medical disaster ever," with more than 10,000 children born with a range of severe deformities, such as phocomelia, as well as thousands of miscarriages.
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Mercédes Benegbi is a Canadian disabilities activist who has been recognized for her advocacy for the rights of disabled people. In 2000, she was honored by the Council of Canadians with Disabilities and in 2014, she drove a successful initiative to gain support for the survivors of thalidomide. Her efforts resulted in life-time compensation for Canadian "thalidomiders", as well as a special fund for specific medical treatments or modifications to homes and vehicles to accommodate their disabilities.
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Penelope Elsie Simmonds is a New Zealand politician, Member of Parliament and a Minister in the House of Representatives for the National Party. She previously served as the chief executive of the Southern Institute of Technology. Following the 2023 New Zealand general election, Simmonds assumed the disability issues, environmental, tertiary education and skills, and associate social development and employment portfolios in the Sixth National Government.
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