Monthly Archives: September 2012

DLA is a lot more than money

The real issue with losing DLA is the validation

Sunday, 2 September 2012

DLA paperwork.  I’m going through the process again because, naturally, auto-immune arthritis has no cure, nor does fibromyalgia…but the goal-posts to what being disabled means has changed and now, unless I’m stuck in bed and cannot even blink, I’m not really disabled anymore.  This is what the new descriptors are doing.  I haven’t got a shade’s chance at midnight in passing this.  My only blessing right now is my son is currently in the clear till 2014…and unless there’s some miracle in autism he’s going to be fine and capable of continuing to receive it; residential status pretty much secures that for him.  I can breathe easy for that, at least.

Gruenenthal’s thalidomide apology ‘insulting’

The company which invented thalidomide has “insulted” those affected by the drug by issuing an “insincere” apology, campaigners have said.

The drug, sold in the 1950s as a cure for morning sickness, was linked to birth defects and withdrawn in 1961.

German-based Gruenenthal has issued its first apology in 50 years, but said the drug’s possible side-effects “could not be detected” before it was marketed.

But the UK’s Thalidomide Trust said any apology should also admit wrongdoing.

Nick Dobrik, a member of the trust’s national advisory council, said it “should be an unreserved apology, not a conditional apology”.