Sukeshi Thakkar

Sukeshi Thakkar is an Indian woman born in Uganda. Unusually, her father was the GP who prescribed thalidomide and this made it difficult for the family to discuss the drug's effects on her. Sukeshi and her mother emigrated to the UK in the 1970s, followed soon after by her father. Sukeshi went to boarding school where she encountered a lot of prejudice against her impairments and found it difficult to form friendships. She never married or left her parents' home but had many careers including working in a travel agency, running a post office, and fashion design, initially working as assistant to Zandra Rhodes. Currently she looks after her mother who suffered a life changing stroke at one of Sukeshi's fashion shows. Sukeshi speaks strongly about how disabled people should be allowed to live with dignity and about her outrage at the irresponsibility of drugs companies and the government. Parts 1 and 2 of the interviews took place in Sukeshi’s home in Stanmore on 18 September 2012. Part 3 took place in Sukeshi’s home on 4 December 2012.

2012

7 audio files

These recordings have been licensed by the Wellcome Trust for public use under Creative Commons Attribution-non commercial-Share Alike 3.00 UK. This means that anyone based in the UK can share and remix the material, as long as it is for non-commercial purposes. Credits, where given, should be to the library at Wellcome Collection, London. (c) Wellcome Trust.