I was nearly given away

‘ MY heart goes out to Elspeth Ross and to all of the young girls whose babies were cruelly taken from them. These poor mums were at their most vulnerable. Some weren’t even able to say goodbye to their newborns.

They were often treated like criminals and made to feel ashamed of being pregnant out of wedlock, or that they had brought disgrace on their families.

It’s hard to imagine now that anyone would want to split up a mother and her baby, but times were different back then.

There wasn’t the same safety net of the welfare state. Perhaps the charities genuinely believed they were acting for the best.

The lifelong misery inflicted on the young mums whose babies were taken away was just unimaginable.

When my mum became pregnant with me, my formidable grandmother wanted to send her to England where the baby would have been adopted.

My mum and dad were still teenagers.

Thankfully my dad stood up to my granny, declaring that he was of course marrying my mum.

They are still together almost 58 years later and six years after I was born they had my brother Graham.

I was lucky to have a stable family and a dad who loved my mum and accepted the responsibility for his child.

Some couples were unable to go against the wishes of their families or the pressure inflicted by outside agencies.

I’m glad attitudes have changed, although I would like to see more young men these days behave responsibly and step up to the mark.