By Elliott West
“Sport gave me a sense of freedom, forgetting all the problems that were going on in the home”.
Fatima Whitbread
Fatima Whitbread
Introduction
Fatima Whitbread is best remembered for being a highly successful javelin thrower, a sportswoman who won a silver and bronze medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics and a multitude of accolades in her sport including becoming BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1987. However, if you dig deeper beneath this brilliant sporting career, you will find a truly inspiring story that I felt compelled to write about. A life story that is filled with courage, determination and a battle against adversity in its most extreme forms. Fatima’s story will bring a tear to your eye and joy to your heart after she successfully circumnavigates her challenges in life to come out alive and kicking the other side.
Challenging Times
Born in 1961 in Stoke Newington, London, Fatima Vedad as she was then known was abandoned in her family’s London flat as a baby, dehydrated and left for dead, it would be her incessant crying that would alert the neighbours to call the police. Rushed to the hospital, Fatima would battle dehydration and malnutrition, leaving the hospital to be thrown into various children’s homes. At the age of five, she was reintroduced to her birth mother after meeting two of her half-siblings in a home in Essex. Yet this wouldn’t turn out to be the happy ending that the young Fatima hoped for. Her mother was unreliable and often left her in a home, taking her other children home instead. This was the true definition of abandonment, leaving Fatima questioning herself and what may become of her in the future.
This was an unimaginable childhood, one where the young Fatima was treated like a pawn in a game of chess by her Turkish Cypriot mother. When she was at home, the children were deprived of food, clothes and most importantly love, spending hours playing in a cold and dank garage with a concrete floor. This was deprivation at its cruellest and ultimately led to her mother who almost spoke no English, sending Fatima back to a children’s home when she was at her most vulnerable. Even her Turkish Cypriot birth father turned up for a week and promised her the earth, saying that he would back to collect her but instead never returned, leaving a sobbing child looking longingly into the distance, sitting on a brick for the best part of two weekends. A life experience that left her emotionally scarred and to become introverted, building a wall around herself, reluctant to let anyone into her world.
The Saviour
Fatima’s saviour in her time of need, came from a woman in the home, known as Auntie Rae. She prevented Fatima from being taken away from the home one day when her mother and three men turned up. This was an ominous experience and one that would come back to haunt her as an 11-year-old. Taken back to their family flat in London for a while. Fatima was raped by a man who was staying there. After this harrowing experience, she was again slung back into the home, becoming even more withdrawn and feeling dirty from her forced sexual experience. Eventually, she was brave enough to tell Auntie Rae about the ordeal, who reported it but nothing was done, except to be sent to see a child psychologist for a couple of weeks. A sad sense of the times when children in homes were thought to lie to get attention.
Escaping Adversity
Fatima’s saving grace was a sport, in particular netball. Sport saved her and gained validation from her PE teachers who recognised her natural sporting skills. Becoming the netball captain, was the start of this long healing process, she would go to the local athletics club and where she met the javelin coach Margaret Whitbread who gave her a second-hand pair of boots and javelin when she found out she was living in a children’s home. After being grounded for a month, Fatima managed to get a note to Margaret, declaring that she aspired to become the best javelin thrower in the world. The note worked because as a result of her efforts, she was adopted by Whitbread and welcomed into the family home to live with Margaret’s two sons and husband. She even changed her name to theirs by deed poll. At 14, Fatima finally felt a sense of worth and was loved by her new family.
The Emotional Scars
Fatima Whitbread would go on to have a glittering sporting career in the field of javelin but with fame and success, came media intrusion, forcing her to re-live her childhood as she retold her story through various press interviews as a result of her birth mother being found. At the time, Fatima thought it would be therapeutic but it turned out to be one of the main reasons for the end of her sporting career, leading to her eventual retirement in 1992 due to a shoulder injury. A career that she still feels that was cut short by at least eight years and could have led to more gold medals including an Olympic one.
Joy and Heartache
In 1997, Whitbread married Andy Norman, an athletics promoter. This marriage would lead to them both wanting children but a miscarriage and IVF would ensue before Fatima had her son after a third round of IVF. This would become the joy of Whitbread’s life as she strove to give her son the best upbringing. Sadly her husband Andy died suddenly in 2007 and Fatima was faced with the life and challenges of being a single mother. It also materialised, after her husband had taken out multiple loans against her name, leaving her in serious debt. Debt which she had to repay via reality television appearances.
Afterthoughts
Even now, Fatima chooses to attend therapy sessions as a result of her early life experiences. She is a remarkable lady who has a truly inspiring story to tell, one that hopefully will encourage others to open up to their traumatic experiences by seeking help. Fatima proves that there is light at the end of the tunnel despite the curved ball that life can throw at you. Whitbread is a beacon of light, one that shines in the dark periods of life. Someone who has had to learn to love herself and gradually take down the wall of her insecurities. Her story made me cry but it also highly inspired me, especially to make people aware of her story by writing this piece about her.
