Thalidomide survivor Lisa McManus honoured for fighting spirit with OAM

The thalidomide survivor, who has been instrumental in securing government support for fellow survivors, has received a Medal of the Order of Australia for her service to people with disabilities.

In 2015, Ms McManus founded Thalidomide Group Australia, connecting survivors like her and forming the basis for her advocacy.

Ms McManus said she was a "product of the government's negligence", after she was born with physical defects as a result of the thalidomide scandal in the 1950s and 1960s.

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The pharmaceutical drug was developed in the 1950s aimed at helping pregnant women suffering from morning sickness. There are only an estimated 124 thalidomide survivors left across Australia.

Part of Ms McManus' fight resulted in a national Senate report being released in 2019, which found the federal government had a moral obligation to thalidomide survivors and owed survivors ongoing disability support payments to those affected.

"To have this letter come through from the Governor General's office, it gives me a jolt that what we did was really, really good," she said.

"It was important, it was necessary and it's good. It does need improvement, but it's a validation and just wonderful feeling."

Ms McManus said survivors were also promised a national apology, which was yet to be delivered.

"We felt validated and victorious when the government announced the package and we felt pleased that a government had finally done something," she said.

"And we were the ones behind that because no one else was going to do it.

"The national apology is something we've been promised... [the senate inquiry] very much laid out that the government certainly had a dirty finger in the pie that created our thalidomide babies.

"We're still fighting."

She said time was running out for more support, including an apology, to come from the government.

"Our survivors were just dwindling at an alarming rate," she said. "We've got significant complex disabilities coupled with old age and we're going downhill very quickly."

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Ms McManus has lived in Lockwood South for about 12 years, in a house where she has written thousands of letters and documented her entire struggle.

She has lived with her partner Andrew, who she said also deserved to be recognised.

"Andrew has just been an absolute rock for me and my only constant support through the whole thing," she said.

"I could not have done it without him."

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