Why the jungle holds no fears for Fatima
Her mother held a knife to her throat at the age of 13 as she was raped
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...#ixzz1dmF4XzjJ
Quote:
Crushing adversity, poverty, terrible cruelty and maternal rejection are usually the staples of boxing biopics. With fists of iron, the subject smashes his or her — remember Million Dollar Baby — way to some kind of victory over the fates.
The Whitbread story is less bloody. It concerns a short, shy young woman who was rather good at throwing the javelin. Along the way she became world champion, world record holder, Olympic medallist, MBE and Sports Personality of the Year.
Today she is flexing her still muscular frame in a spotted bikini in the I’m A Celebrity jungle. It all looks rather jolly, if you like that kind of thing. But few middleweights from the wrong side of the tracks have suffered the upbringing that Whitbread had to endure before she found success.
Her birth ‘mother’ — Whitbread does not like to use such a flattering term, preferring ‘that woman’ — was Turkish Cypriot; her biological father came from the Greek community of that bitterly divided island.
Born in north London 50 years ago, Fatima was an unwelcome accident, which brought social disgrace. But for neighbours’ vigilance, she would have died of starvation while still a baby.
Her mother abandoned her in a flat, and it was only days later that someone, alerted by the child’s cries, called the police.
Fatima spent four months in hospital recovering from malnutrition, and her first 14 years in a series of children’s homes.
Occasionally, distressingly, her biological mother would re-enter her life. The first time they met was deeply shocking, not least because young Fatima had not been warned that the woman was even alive.
The pair were put in a car and driven to another children’s home, where Fatima’s half-brother and sister by her mother lived, and where little Fatima was to be moved. During the journey her mother barely spoke to her.
Fatima later recalled: ‘When we arrived, a house-parent told me: “Go into the garden and meet your brother and sister.” As I wandered into the garden, my mother grabbed me and said: “This is your sister, and if you don’t look after her I cut your throat.”
'This was my introduction to my biological mother, and from there things got worse.’
When she approached her tenth birthday, social services decided Fatima should start visiting her mother in preparation for a permanent reunion.
‘She turned up one day with some guys who were more or less pimps — they were there to take a look at me because by that time I was a big girl,’ she later recalled. ‘It was horrible.’
When she visited her mother’s flat, she was made to do the housework. Later, when she was 13 and on another visit, her mother’s drunken boyfriend raped her. Fatima screamed, but all her mother did was hold a knife to her throat and tell her to shut up.
|
Blimey ..... :eek: |
