THALIDOMIDE victims led by a Liverpool campaigner yesterday won a settlement believed to be worth more than £118m and an apology from the company responsible for the drug.
More than 40 years after the medication, known as Distaval, left hundreds of babies in Britain with missing or deformed limbs, the food and drink giant Diageo has caved in to pressure to increase the fund that now supports sufferers.
It follows a long campaign spearheaded by Freddie Astbury, president of Thalidomide UK, and Thalidomide Trust National Advisory Council sparked by fears the pot of cash would run out.
Mr Astbury, 46, from Croxteth Park, who was born with stunted arms and legs, was awarded just £30,000 compensation under a deal struck in the 1970s.
He said: "This is the first time anyone responsible for the drug has apologised and it is just as important to us as the financial settlement.
"It is an apology that should have come forty years ago but it is appreciated and it will mean a great deal to people like me who live with the consequences day by day.
"For legal reasons, Distillers never admitted liability. Now this apology and the settlement from Diageo and this settlement draws a final line under our issues with them.
"Now it is the Government's turn. We want Tony Blair and the Department of Health to apologise and make further contributions to the fund.
"The Government bears a big responsibility for the mistake in licensing the drug in the first place and it has never properly accepted the burden of that blunder.
"Our campaign will now turn its full force on the Government to force it to play a full part in providing compensation for the consequences."
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