Summary
Hazel Ellis-Saxon was brought up in a busy household with four siblings in the village of Tiptree in Essex in the 1960s. She struggled with her school work and was often finishing assignments when the other children were enjoying playtime. One day in a quiet classroom Hazel overheard her form teacher describe her to a colleague as ‘mentally retarded’. These two words had a profound effect — leading her to believe that she must be a huge disappointment to her parents and would never enjoy a full life.
Dr Sian Williams hears how this label shaped Hazel’s decisions for decades and what it took for her to throw it off.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Eleven climbers appeared to have died on the world's second highest mountain K2. |
| 0:06.0 | It was one of the deadliest days in mountaineering history. |
| 0:10.0 | Rock falls, avalanches. |
| 0:11.0 | Huge pieces of ice. All are big enough to kill you. |
| 0:14.0 | He just flew out into Devoid and he was gone. |
| 0:17.0 | How did it all go so wrong? |
| 0:19.0 | And is it really worth risking death to feel alive? Why would |
| 0:23.2 | somebody pay to go to a place called the death cell on a vacation? Extreme, peak danger. With me, |
| 0:29.9 | Natalia Melman Petrazella. Listen to the full series now. First on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:40.1 | Hello and welcome to the series that hears from extraordinary people |
| 0:44.5 | who've had a transformative moment that shifts the way they look at life and themselves. |
| 0:50.1 | That moment can seem small. |
| 0:53.0 | For Hazel Ellis-Saxon, it was a brief conversation, a few words |
| 0:57.4 | overheard when she was just eight years old. But those words were to trap and define her for decades. |
| 1:05.9 | Hazel, hello. Hello. Nice to see you. Thank you. Nice to be here. |
| 1:10.0 | Well, get on to that moment shortly. First, though, describe life before it. You were born in the 60s, okay to say that? I was too. What was family life like for you? Where did you grow up? |
| 1:22.1 | Tip Tree and then Cheltsford. I had two brothers, two sisters, two absolutely lovely parents. I don't think it was |
| 1:30.3 | easy. My parents struggled a lot with money, but they were very devoted, very loving parents. I was |
| 1:36.2 | extremely fortunate. And a busy house by the sounds of it. Yes, very busy house, yeah. What was school |
| 1:42.4 | like for you? |
| 1:45.8 | Well, I hated school. |
| 1:49.2 | I couldn't do the school work. |
... |
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