I waited until Terry was older and it was only due to great pressure from the medical profession that I took him for his vaccine and I was devastated when he also had a reaction.  They both developed symptoms of excessive thirst, high fevers, rashes, fits, bowel changes, constant pain, screaming, aggression, severe headaches, memory loss and the list goes on. Michael seems to be affected the worst as he is having more severe problems. One doctor referred us to a local hospital and without the boys having any investigations we were told that there were no bowel problems.  On another occasion when Terry was having a fit I was told by the doctor and hospital to just give him Calpol.

However, he eventually ended up as an emergency as his body went into shock.
My boys were passed from one doctor to another without any real investigations, or anyone showing a desire to help or find out what the problem was. I was desperate until I found a doctor who was concerned enough to refer my sons to the Royal Free hospital under Professor Walker-Smith’s team which included Dr. Wakefield and Professor Simon Murch. It was the first time we had come across doctors who actually listened to our family and our concerns. The treatment they received from the hospital and the doctors at that point was excellent and the boys started to make progress. However, this progress stopped as soon as the three doctors in question left the Royal Free hospital and other doctors were too frightened for their careers to treat my boys and other children, as it was seen as a risk. A doctor at another London hospital said that there was no bowel disease in Terry again without any investigation, and so as a last resort to find a way to help alleviate my boys suffering, I took them both to the USA for treatment. On my return with positive findings from a number of diagnostic tests, this London doctor apologised and said he would have to look again at the way he investigated bowel symptoms in autistic children.

With this in mind, I find it sad that some journalists love to call mothers and fathers who dare suggest that the MMR may have caused their children to fall ill "anti-vaccine". The misrepresentation of families like mine just adds another weight to the pressure that we're already facing. These same people would love to think and try to represent such families as unstable, emotional, almost militant campaigners who want to bring down the national health program and stop every child from getting any vaccination ever. They almost always ignore the most important questions....from my perspective these would be: why are my children ill? What caused it? Why won't the government examine my sons? And what can be done so that my sons are no longer in constant pain?

Three doctors in particular who have done more than anything to find answers to these questions, namely Dr. Andrew Wakefield, Professor Simon Murch and Professor Walker Smith have placed themselves in a dangerous situation with both sacrifice and judgment, unnecessary and sad that they are prepared to do it again no matter what the outcome of the GMC hearing. I think it is ridiculous, unnecessary and sad that they are up against the GMC as I, nor any other parent to my knowledge have not made any complaint against the three doctors. I am also angry that my children do not have any legal representative at the hearing and that my family and others affected by the outcome have no voice in the hearing, and have to listen to lies about our families. Because of this, it seems clear to me that the GMC are not interested in how our children are now, and they are being used merely as political pawns. Our children are desperately sick, and need treatment. For the sake of our innocent children caught up in this web of deceit and a generation lost to society, please do not ignore this. 


Rochelle Poulter – Parent of Child 12 in the GMC Hearing

My name is Rochelle Poulter and I am the mother of child twelve.  My son was developing quite normally until he received his MMR vaccination.  He then started to regress, milestones he had previously passed he failed to reach and words he was using stopped.  He started soiling himself and his behaviour deteriorated.  My happy son changed completely.  He was finally diagnosed as being autistic, for which we received adequate help from the medical profession, but his soiling problems went untreated.

A chance meeting with a parent at a mother and toddler group alerted me to the fact that a team of doctors were looking into a possible link between autism, bowel disorders and the MMR vaccine.  My GP was happy to refer my son to the world renowned Professor Walker-Smith for investigations into his bowel problems on the basis of clinical need.
I was able to accompany my son when he had his colonoscopy and had his bowel disease pointed out to me as it was discovered by the doctors.  My son was then treated for his bowel condition with some success.  How some uninformed people without any medical training have had the audacity to claim that my son and children like him do not suffer from bowel disease is beyond me.  I have actually seen the disease in my son's intestine and live with the symptoms daily.  My son, who is now eighteen, has frequent bouts of stomach pain and diarrhoea, and is still extremely thin.

I have agreed to give this statement because I am incensed at the way Professors Walker-Smith, Simon Murch and Dr Andrew Wakefield have been treated.  In the absence of any complaint from any parent and on the evidence of one solitary, biased journalist, the General Medical Council have decided to bring charges of serious professional misconduct nearly nine years after the event.  If the conduct of these doctors is so reprehensible, why has it taken so long to call them to account?

Last year I was called to give evidence before the GMC.  I believed this was to give my support to Professor Walker-Smith and his team.  I was shocked upon arriving at the hearing to discover that I had been called by the prosecution.  I insisted that the hearing be informed that I was completely happy with the treatment my son had received and that I did not have any complaint against any of the doctors.  To this day I do not really know why I was asked to attend and give evidence.

I cannot do better than to conclude by quoting Dr Peter Fletcher's words: 'Refusal of Government to evaluate the risks of MMR properly will make this one of the greatest scandals in medical history'.

Thank you.

Statement from Rosemary Kessick – mother of child 2 in the GMC hearing

My name is Rosemary Kessick and I’m the mother of child number two discussed in the GMC hearings. My previously healthy baby had become ill, seriously ill.   His development faltered then his early skills faded away. He suffered from both serious regression and equally serious physical maladies. A round of consultations with specialists had been largely unsatisfactory until finally, supported by our local medical team, we were fortunate enough to see the man with a reputation as the finest paediatric gastroenterologist in the world,  Professor John Walker-Smith.

I had never made any secret of the fact that my son’s illness was seemingly  connected with his MMR vaccination and it was this, together with my discovery that work by Dr. Andrew Wakefield had identified the measles virus as one of the potential triggers for Crohn’s disease, that led me to search for the help which came.

The eventual clinical investigations led to a successful treatment regime which has assured my son a virtually pain free childhood and adolescence. This year he is twenty-one years old.

I’m here today because I struggle to find words to describe my outrage and disgust that the General Medical Council, a charitable body which supposedly protects patients’ interests, should have allowed unfounded charges against these three doctors to even see the light of day.

These are doctors who were not only ‘just doing their jobs’ but doing them to a level of excellence which we, as a family,  had not hitherto experienced.

Furthermore, the one and only experience I have recently had of sitting in the hearing  was demeaning  and insulting to my son and to me as well as to the medical team which has cared for him so well.

To hear that my son’s gastrointestinal condition has been extensively refuted, by unqualified and ill-informed individuals who have never laid eyes on him, looking at and mis-interpreting  scanty medical notes without the courtesy to ask for our version of  our son’s early childhood, flies in the face of everything that the medical community and its professional bodies seek to represent. This is especially curious as gastrointestinal issues in autism are well recognised and documented and are included in the UK government’s own best practice guidelines for early investigation and treatment.

What is tragic, is that despite early promises, the NHS has not put funding aside to enhance facilities for children and adults suffering from autistic spectrum disorders who have concurrent gastrointestinal, allergy and dietary related symptoms. Consequently, as a result, children and adults on the spectrum, many of whom, like my son have no language or communicative skills to enunciate their pain, are left to suffer.

The matter of what caused my son’s illness is one which still remains to be clarified and is hotly debated but I ask you this, ‘If a patient suffers from cancer do we refuse treatment unless we know the cause?    Does  research into cancer focus solely on the genetic links ? ’

No of course not.

Geneticist Professor Steve Jones recently announced that the wider environmental factors should be considered in the search for a range of medical conditions and I heartily applaud his perspicacity.

We urgently need to depoliticise autism and invest in a more rounded research programme encompassing medical conditions, co-morbidity, biochemical anomalies, genetics, family history and  environmental factors.  

Whether you want to argue about better diagnosis or a change in diagnostic criteria matters little because we are facing epidemic numbers of children in schools with autism and autism related disorders. Young families are angry, desperate for services and answers.

You, the press, can do one of two things. You can promote false ideas and sensationalist headlines to sell your wares or you can get a grip of the real issues at stake for our collective future, our children, and do society a service in the bargain.

I hope you choose well.