A FAMILY who has spent decades campaigning to highlight fears over a drug given to pregnant women have appeared in a Sky documentary charting their plight.

Lorraine Norman, 51, from Scorton, near Richmond, has fought alongside her mum Lesley Riddell who was given hormone pregnancy test Primodos, which was available in the 1960s and 70s.

It was manufactured by drug company Schering AG, a German company since taken over by Bayer - which disputes the claims.

Now the UK's drugs regulator is to examine new evidence about the drug which hundreds of parents believe caused serious and life limiting deformities in their children.

A bundle of files discovered by campaign group the Association for Children Damaged by Hormone Pregnancy Tests, suggests the British government knew in 1975 that Primodos - withdrawn in 1978 - increased the risk of a baby being born with serious birth defects.

Mrs Norman, who grew up in Kent, and now lives in North Yorkshire where she cares for her mum who suffers from Alzheimer’s, spoke to Sky News as part of its investigation screened last night.

The full documentary into the investigation is on Sky Atlantic at 8pm on Tuesday night and Mrs Norman said it will be difficult to watch.

“My mum had me in 1965 – I was her first child and she was not given Primodos. But when she got pregnant with my sister Sherry a year later we had moved to a different area and had a new doctor who gave her the pills.

“Sherry was a small and very quiet baby, and it was difficult to feed her. Mum took her to Great Ormond Street Hospital and she was told Sherry was brain damaged, deaf and blind in one eye.”

In 1967 Ms Riddell suffered a miscarriage after taking the drug, and in 1968 she gave birth to son Scott, who was a normal weight but had a hare lip and cleft palate, as well as a damaged aorta and holes in his heart.

Mrs Norman said: “I had to grow up very quickly, but through it all mum and I were best friends. We supported each other through some very tough times as Sherry and Scott were in and out of hospital a great deal.”

“I had a good childhood because my maternal grandparents were fantastic too and make a big fuss of me on my birthday if mum had to be in hospital.”

In the early 1970s Ms Riddell heard about a possible link between Primodos and birth defects and said it made her feel sick.

The Association for Children Damaged by Hormone Pregnancy Tests was formed but disbanded after an early case failed to reach court in 1982 – but it reformed in 2009.

Bayer insists that sales of Primodos were “in compliance with prevailing laws,” and “evidence for a causal association between the use of hormonal pregnancy tests and an increased incidence of congenital malformations was extremely weak.”

Mrs Norman said: “Life has been tough. Sherry was living with me but had to be sectioned in November last year, and Scott lived with depression, making several attempts to take his own life.

“He finally told us he always knew he was a woman, and had a sex change operation but only lived as Amy for a couple of years before we found out he had cancer in 2006, and she died later that year.”

Mrs Norman said she hopes the documentary on Sky Atlantic will raise awareness of the campaign and encourage others in the UK to come forward.

The group is still campaigning and is awaiting the response from a public inquiry.