Katharine Quarmby

These two (my lovely children, who were great at glowering in front of the camera and smile quite well these days) were the first biological family I ever lived with. Like almost all adopted people, I have lived my history backwards, getting to know more about aspects of my past through my children. I was relinquished by my birth mother when I was just a few days old, and moved to foster care in Bingley, Yorkshire. At three months old I joined the Quarmby clan – which has been an adventure in itself.

But however happy I have been since I was adopted, like most adoptees I have lacked history, identity – and, at its most basic, a biological health record. Now I have a unique chance, through being one of the winners of the Tenacious Journalist Award 2026, from the Public Interest News Foundation, to dig into how our lack of health history as adoptees affects our experience of the NHS. One of the key planks of this work is asking fellow adoptees if they will complete a short survey exploring their experiences of navigating being adopted and not knowing how this might affect health.

If you are over 18, live in the UK, and adopted, please consider doing this survey. It will take between 5-15 minutes to complete (depending on how much information you want to share). The survey is completely anonymous and the data will be stored securely within line with UK data protection laws. It will inform the journalism I do this year and perhaps more importantly, my journalism and the survey results will be shared with adoptee organisations and the NHS held to account. Please don’t fill it out if you are not adopted – it is just for adoptees, not adoptive parents.

You can access the survey here and it’s open till 30 April 2026.