Paralympic champion Ellie Simmonds OBE has thanked fans for their unwavering support after seeing her reunite with her birth mum.
The former Strictly Come Dancing star, who has achondroplasia dwarfism, featured in ITV doc Ellie Simmonds: Finding My Secret Family, which saw the athlete track down her birth mother while opening up on her personal life and disability.
Taking to social media, the 28-year-old said the programme helped answer 'questions I’ve carried for years'.
Posting on Instagram on Thursday (6 July), Simmonds wrote: “Just want to say thank you so much to everyone for the messages and support I’ve received since opening up about my story and the lead up to the documentary.
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“But my biggest thanks goes to everyone who helped make the doc what it is.
“Thank you to Jas, Colleen, Glesni, Jo Clinton Davis, @arthursbearnecessities @jonolanc, Essex Social workers and everyone else (I wish the doc could have been longer so people could hear your story too) who I chatted to who allowed me into their lives and family home to help shed a light into disability and adoption.
“If you’re adopted or fostering and need support, there’s some amazing charities and people to help, such as @adopteefutures and @adoption.uk.”
Simmonds' birth mother put her up for adoption shortly after her achondroplasia diagnosis.
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The Paralympian said: "She expressed concerns to the midwife that she felt that there wasn't bonding with myself and requested I be placed up for adoption."
She went to live with a foster family when she was just two weeks old.
Simmonds said she 'was not angry', saying she had to 'pace herself in [her birth mother's] shoes' as 'a single parent'.
She was reunited with her birth mum off-screen, to protect the woman's identity.
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She said: “I think it’s helped with the finding out who I am, looking at someone who birthed me, the nature that I’m from.
“All the questions that I had to ask to her and she answered them and it makes you a bit more whole.”
She added: “Although I have no idea how this will all play out. I’m glad I’ve gone through this process. Questions I’ve carried for years have been answered.
“I’m proud of my life. And I love my family. And maybe perhaps that family just got a bit bigger.”
At the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, Simmonds remarkably won two gold medals at the age of 13.
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She went on to receive the award for the BBC’s Young Sports Personality Of The Year and was also made an MBE.
The swimmer competed in the 2012 and 2016 Paralympics, in London and Rio respectively, winning three more gold medals.
She was then upgraded to an OBE in 2013 and appeared in Strictly Come Dancing in 2022.
Ellie Simmonds: Finding My Secret Family is available to watch now on ITVX.
Featured Image Credit: Mike Marsland/Kate Green/Getty ImagesTopics: Celebrity, TV And Film