Strictly Come Dancing's Ellie Simmonds adopted parents fostered 70 children
The incredible couple who adopted Paralympian Ellie Simmonds also took in 70 other children from broken homes.
Strictly Come Dancing star Ellie revealed this week that she was raised by Stephen and Valerie Simmonds in the West Midlands - and not her birth parents.
She joined their family, which also had four other kids when she was just three months old.
The gold medal-winning swimmer embarked on a search for her blood family last year after finding out she had been given up at 10 days old.
Her mother Valerie, 70, says they have fostered dozens and dozens of children over the years as the big-hearted pair opened up their home to youngsters who needed some help and love.
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She was adopted by the kind-hearted couple when she was a few months old (AFP via Getty Images)Ellie was devastated to discover her mum wished she had died at birth after medics told her that her daughter would be ridiculed and seen as “evil” and “stupid”.
But it didn’t stop Ellie, 28, who was born with achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism, from wanting to find her as she documents her search in a new ITV documentary.
Valerie and the sports star's dad Stephen, 72, knew she was destined for great things from an early age.
Her mum told MailOnline: "We never said no to any child that needed our help and love.
"I suppose that we had a big house and wanted to fill it with children and that we got quite good at taking them in."
She was surrounded by love from an early ageThey said that there was an instant bond because their daughter Katie also suffers from the same condition.
Her dad went on: "‘She is a marvellous example of what can be achieved if you’ve got the drive and determination and since she was a child, Ellie’s had a lot of that. There was never any doubt in my mind and hers that she could do what she wanted to do and achieve her goals."
After an emotional five-hour first meeting, she reveals the pair are still in touch and rebuilding their relationship.
“Until now, it’s never emotionally affected me, it never made me feel rejected or ask why do my birth parents not want me,” she says in the documentary. “I’ve been so focused on the future and never thought about it.”
Her difficult childhood hasn't stopped her going on to great things (PA)Ellie, who won five gold medals during her career in Beijing, London and Rio, has often talked about her parents as her biggest supporters but never before revealed how the couple adopted her as a baby.
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But when “questions started to bubble up” she decided to go in search of answers.
“One of the reasons for being given up for adoption is dwarfism and maybe it can be a factor of why my personality is like it is, because of that rejection at the start,” she explains.
With the help of a specialist social worker, Ellie first got hold of the files relating to her birth.
Days after she was born the hospital confirmed Ellie had achondroplasia.
An information sheet given to her birth mother warned how her daughter would have a “large skull and depressed nasal bridge” and that children with her condition “tend to be muscular and acrobatic, which is perhaps the reason for them traditionally being involved in the circus and other forms of theatre”.
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