EILEEN MUNRO Although I know I’m not to blame I’ll live forever with the guilt

AS a small child, Eileen Munro remembers comforting words from the broken woman who was the only mummy she’d ever known.

“You’re special . . . I got to choose you.”

At age five, it was the first glimmer of understanding that she had been adopted and this woman with the tired eyes was not her real mother. But equally vivid is the memory of insults spoken by the drunken brute she thought of as daddy: “You’re adopted –a b ****** !”

Seven years later her mother, ground down by years of abuse, died in her arms.

Her father wasted no time in dumping Eileen, “born in sin” into a strict Lanarkshire family, back into the care system.

The legacy of rejection would affect not only Eileen but her son, who would die by his own hand aged 22.

Eileen said: “I believe my son’s death is directly related to my being adopted.

“Because I had no access to medical records or those of

my natural family, doctors failed to recognise Craig’s severe mood swings were due to a genetically inherited illness.”

It was not the only legacy of her unwitting ignorance.

Craig had also been born deaf, as a result of her contracting German measles when she was pregnant.

Eileen, 53, from Hamilton, was only made aware she hadn’t been vaccinated when she finally got access to her own social work records aged 40.

“We discovered too little too late,” said Eileen, who suffers from ME. “I know I’m not to blame, but I will live forever with the guilt.”

She is backing the campaign for an inquiry.

“It’s long overdue. Times may have changed but the system hasn’t.”