This emotive documentary follows the athlete’s attempt to find her birth mother – and tackle how achondroplasia influenced the decision to put her up for adoption. It’s revelatory stuff
Penny has been helping to place babies and children with dwarfism – the condition she has herself – with adoptive families for the last 30 years. She describes herself as “a link person” – her very presence demystifying and destigmatising what the child or baby “means”, lessening fears and making greater things possible. When she has a child come to her, she has a private message she whispers over them when they are sleeping. “I say: ‘You’ll be fine. Somebody will love you, somebody will come for you.’” She tells Paralympic gold medallist Ellie Simmonds this shyly, with an almost embarrassed laugh. She’s never told anyone she does this “daft” thing before.
She tells Ellie now because Ellie, in fact, has heard it before. Penny said it to her 27 years ago when Ellie was a baby in a foster family, having been given up for adoption a few days after birth. The Simmonds family came for her, and the Simmonds family loved her. They added her to their brood, which would eventually number five children.
Ellie Simmonds: Finding My Secret Family aired on ITV1 and is available on ITVX.
