Marjorie Shiona Wallace, CBE (born January 1943) is a British investigative journalist, author, and broadcaster. She is also the Founder and Chief Executive of mental health charity SANE. Early life and education Wallace was born in Nairobi, British Kenya, where her father was a civil engineer mapping the railways. Her mother was a classical pianist. After studying music, Wallace graduated with a degree in Psychology and Philosophy from University College London. Career Journalism Early career After graduating, Wallace worked as a trainee producer for The Frost Programme with David Frost. She then became a religious programmes producer and a current affairs reporter for London Weekend Television. She later joined the BBC as a reporter and film director for news and current affairs programme Nationwide, including covering stories about homeless people and making the first film inside an IRA training camp. The Sunday Times In 1972, Harold Evans, then editor of The Sunday Times, recruited Wallace into the Insight Team of the newspaper to work on the thalidomide scandal. She was tasked with tracking down as many of the cases where children had been born with deformities caused by the drug. Wallace interviewed over 140 families affected by thalidomide, publishing weekly stories in the newspaper. One of the cases was Terry Wiles, a child born with severe physical disabilities who had been adopted by Hazel and Len Wiles. The article is credited with helping to persuade Distillers, the company that distributed and marketed the drugs, to offer compensation to victims of the scandal. Wallace later turned Wiles’ story into a book and a screenplay, On Giant’s Shoulders, for a BBC television film broadcast in 1979 starring Judi Dench. The drama won an International Emmy Award in 1980 and was also nominated for a BAFTA. The Sunday Times expose of thalidomide led to victims being awarded over £28 million compensation. In 1976, Wallace reported on the Dioxin disaster in Seveso, Northern Italy, which led to the publication of The Superpoison. In 1986, Wallace wrote a series of campaigning articles in The Times on schizophrenia and other severe mental illness. The articles were published under the title The Forgotten Illness. They focused on misconceptions about mental illness, the anguish and neglect of sufferers and families, and the failures of the community care policy. The response to the articles was the largest The Times had ever received on a home news subject. SANE &