Family life
Simon Brennan
The super-fit father of three who is dealing with motor neurone disease with extraordinary grace and stoicism.
My Mother’s Ruin: The orphanage which made my mother’s life a misery…
Long abandoned, this grim orphanage for the children of Liverpool seamen has reopened — as a tourist attraction for believers in the paranormal. I went back to the institution that made my own mother’s childhood a misery.
A 100-year-old shoe box holds the secrets of lonely war time mothers of illegitimate children
Unearthed in the Scottish Highlands, an old shoe box contained letters from a generation of lonely and desperate illegitimate mothers confiding in an agony aunt who was not what she seemed
It’s completely heartbreaking to hear your child say: ‘I don’t want to live anymore’
Anorexia nervosa in primary school children is on the rise, I spoke to mothers who face a daily battle to keep their children alive
The Great Childbirth Taboo
The Royal College of Midwives has reversed it’s policy on natural labour but it’s too late to help the thousands of women damaged for life by instrumental deliveries
Read more here
Type 1 Diabetes: Every day you’re left thinking: ‘Did I damage him today?’
Type 1 diabetes is a lifelong and potentially lethal affliction that has reached epidemic proportions. It is incredibly difficult to manage — young sufferers and their families tell their moving stories.
A high-pressure autism treatment is changing these little boys’ lives
Tough love. Critics say it is demanding and cruel, and the Department of Health won’t recognise it. But a high pressure autism treatment is changing these little boys’ lives.
Organ Donor Shortage: How Tom Wilson, who was killed aged 22, helped 50 people to live
When Tom was killed in a tragic accident playing hockey, his parents gave permission for all his organs and tissues to be donated.
Edward Timpson and his mother, Alex on fostering 90 children
I had thought about fostering for years. Alex, mother of the then children’s minister, inspired me to get on with it.
Lessons from a state funded boarding school
How disadvantaged and vulnerable children are given the chance to shine alongside the sons and daughters of the wealthy.
Shared Lives: fostering vulnerable adults
While foster families look after children, the charity Shared Lives applies the model to challenged adults..
The number of children needing foster homes has risen from 49,700 to more than 59,000.
Five foster carers talk to me about how it feels to care for other people’s children..
The Mayor of London’s Music Fund five years’ on: How did the scholars get on?
Fives years’ ago I met musically talented children from poorer families all over London who had been chosen to receive financial support and mentoring so they could continue to play their instruments. I went back to find out whether the scheme had been a success
The academy where pupils sign a pledge to behave
Rigid discipline and academic vigour are helping to transform the lives of students at a school in an area scarred by deprivation and gang violence.
Our Family Outing: when two of your children are gay
My sister describes how she and her two kids came out.
The agony of mothers who lose custody of their children
Fathers often lose contact with their children after divorce, but more and more mothers are going through the same searing experience
Autistic Adults
Autistic children are a magnet for media attention, but what sort of lives do they lead when they grow up?
Behind the Scenes on Strictly…
Strictly Speaking, I won.. The unforgettable Nancy del Olio on Strictly and why it’s nothing without her.
Lucian Freud: intimate interviews with his models, including his daughter, Annie
Lucian Freud was an obsessive task master and father of 15 – His daughter, Annie and others remember what it was like to sit for him.
Locked-in Syndrome
These victims of locked-in syndrome are unable to move or speak, yet determined to life to the full.
Life After X Factor
What happens after you almost win X factor? And can you make a career out of losing?
Inside the School for Angry Infants
It costs £123,000 a year to send severely traumatised children who have been multiply excluded from primary schools to The Mulberry Bush School in Oxfordshire, where experts help unravel years of abuse and neglect.
Fistula: Childbirth aged 12 in Sierra Leone
In many parts of Africa, the most prolific killer of young girls is pregnancy. Those who don’t die in childbirth, suffer appalling damage. I met pregnant twelve-year-old girls facing child birth in a Sierra Leone Slum.
Thalidomide: Born Fighting – thalidomide survivors’ 50-year battle for justice
Fifty years after the Thalidomide scandal broke, thalidomiders talk about their fight for justice and their battle to live normal lives.
It’s agony not being able to ‘fix’ my daughter’s depression
A mother’s heart rending account of her daughter’s mental illness
Who will care for our autistic adults?
A GP and father of an autistic young adult describes his battle for appropriate care for his son.
Home Swapping
Once you start thinking of your house as a hot date, you will never again have to suffer the agony of coughing up thousands of pounds to stay in rental properties that turn out to be far less comfortable than your own home.
The survivor’s guide to trampolines
My own completely unscientific research has led me to believe that even the most objectionable child is nicer after a brisk bounce. But how safe are trampolines? Not very, according to experts.
Home Schooling
Across Britain, thousands of children skip school altogether. When the system fails, is home schooling the answer?
Thalidomide: Call the Midwife
Fifty years’ ago, The Sunday Times played a crucial role in uncovering the Thalidomide scandal. As the story is played out again on Call the Midwife, I met the mothers and their who took it and their children who suffered horrific deformities.
Thalidomide: Spain – The Forgotten Victims
When the thalidomide scandal erupted in 1961, the drug was soon banned. Yet pregnant women in Spain continued taking it until the 1980s — and the authorities refuse to accept responsibility.
Women who lose custody of their children
Fathers often lose contact with their children after divorce. Now, more and more mothers are going through that same searing experience.
ICU Psychosis Syndrome
Thousands of intensive care patients suffer terrifying hallucinations and PTSD – we are only just beginning to understand why
Young Carers: Crying out to be heard
200,000 children in Britain look after sick or disabled relatives with little support
Dyspraxia: cure or quackery?
A journey through ‘treatments’ for my son’s learning difficulties
Young Carers’ Appeal
How the money was spent
Brain Injury in Children
20,000 Children are brain injured each year, yet only a handful receive specialist rehabilitation
Middle class homelessness
Paula Daly owned her own home and business before losing everything. And she’s not alone. increasing numbers of middle class people are finding themselves among the ranks of ‘hidden homeless’.
West end kids: children in the Spotlight
Hundreds of children take to the stage every night. What is life like for them and are they being pushed too far?
It’s completely heart-breaking to hear your child say ‘I don’t want to live anymore’
Toby is nine years old. Last year he began starving himself. His parents, teachers and Doctors have no idea why. Caroline reports on the rise of anorexia in primary school children.