Paralympic champion and Strictly star has been described as an 'inspiration' after she bravely made the decision to track down her birth mum who gave her up for adoption. And the emotional moment she met her mum for the first time has been aired on television, as part of a new documentary.
Ellie, who has achondroplasia dwarfism, revealed she was given up for adoption when she was two weeks old, as she tracked down her birth mother for the documentary. Ellie Simmonds: Finding My Secret Family, which aired on ITV on Thursday, explored the relationship between disability and adoption.
Speaking of the moment she saw her mum for the first time, Eillie said: "We have the same sense of humour. I kept looking at her and thinking wow, that's my mum. She thinks about me every day and that got me. She always sees me as a daughter."
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Ellie continued: “Until now, it’s never emotionally affected me, it never made me feel rejected or ask why do my birth parents not want me. I’ve been so focused on the future and never thought about it.
“One of the reasons for being given up for adoption is because of dwarfism and maybe it can be a factor of why my personality is like it is now, because of that rejection at the start. Even if you do have a loving family being rejected straight away, like as soon as you were born.”
In the documentary she also spends time with families who adopted disabled children and hears deeply personal stories from disabled people who tried to find their birth parents, only to be rejected again. The programme also highlighted the pioneering work of social services teams around the UK and explore barriers on both sides of the adoptive process, both social and institutional to ask if they are perpetuating an unfounded stigma around having disabled children.
After finally meeting her birth mother for the first time, Simmonds said: “I think it’s really helped that finding out who I am, looking at someone who birthed me, the nature that I’m from and the questions I had to ask her and she answered them it makes you a bit more whole.
“Although I have no idea how all this will play out, I’m glad I’ve gone through this process, questions I’ve carried for years have been answered. I’m proud of my life and I love my family and maybe, perhaps, that family just got bigger.”
Ellie shared her appreciation on Twitter to her followers and those who helped her make the documentary. Her Twitter followers described her as 'incredible' and an 'inspiration.'
