Polly Tommey

PT’s Autism Awareness campaign. Hmm..

Polly Tommey  has great legs. She is a great actress and she and her great legs have had starring roles in many UK Sunday night dramas playing someone else’s great legs. Polly Tommey highlights these body double roles in her acting achievements. She’s the UK’s Jenny McCarthy…only not as loud, or as influential or as effective in getting her message across. Even getting her baps out – almost – raised little more than an embarrassed chuckle and certainly not autism awareness. In spite of the fact that my friends know that Pwdin is severely autistic, when asked if they remembered this billboard (left) those that did (mainly living in London) didn’t recall if they ever knew what it was for and most others said they simply didn’t know. “Wonderbras?” “Boobies?”

Tommey is the editor-in-chief of the Autism Trust’s propaganda rag The Autism Files. the magazine, edited and largely written (in the UK) by Polly Tommey – an actress, not a person with autism, not a scientist – describes itself as “the world authority on autism, Asperger’s, ADHD, ADD and other related disorders.” Having read a couple of editions there’s alot more in it about Polly Tommey, her husband and her neurotypical children than there is about her autistic son Billy who, when he does get a mention,  it’s to draw attention to how brave, courageous and just super duper his family are for putting up with the lad – especially his mum. The remainder of the magazine has a limited number of themes for articles which are as follows:

  • How and why vaccines and autism are the worst things to happen to humanity;
  • How parents’ voices are the only ones that should be heard and those Aspies had better shut up cos that’s not proper, hard-core autism anyway;
  • How some once perfect child has been “lost” to autism and is now a blight on his/her family’s lives;
  • How brave mums who believe vaccines cause autism are.

To be fair, this isn’t every edition because that would be way too much to fit in alongside all the advertisements  for tests and “therapies” and supplements available from her husband’s clinic.

Still banging on about toxins and vaccines and themselves – the mums

Though she certainly doesn’t have the celebrity wallop of Jenny McCarthy and, to her credit, Tommey is nowhere near as rude or crass the two do have a few things in common besides a penchant for peroxide. Tommy has used her child’s condition to save herself from obscurity. She allies herself with Andrew Wakefield both believing that autism is caused by vaccines (although I don’t actually think Wakefield can seriously beilieve this) and can be cured by giving them and their charities and businesses lots of money for unproven and implausable medications and supplements after, of course, paying big bucks for a whole battery of diagnostically useless tests.

While the Autism Trust professes to champion the rights of autistic adults they  push the idea that the best place for them is in institutionalised care (that they hope to provide). Strange then, or perhaps telling, that when the sickening abuses of adults with learning disabilities at Winterbourne View, Bristol, was aired on BBC’s Panorama, of all the UK autism charities Tommey’s was silent. The only quote I can find from her relating to this was on the Naidex  website promoting their procucts (disability aids etc). Here is the comment in full so no  editing (though I probably will still get accused of it)

“As a parent it is thoroughly reassuring that there are events like Naidex offering such a wealth of information to parents and carers of disabled children and adults, especially in light of the upsetting footage shown by Panorama.  There are so many knowledgeable and friendly people at the shows who are fully equipped to provide expert help and guidance, and I strongly recommend visiting to anyone looking for support and advice on care.”

This documentary is truly shocking and contains scenes of horrific abuse of disabled adults and can be viewed in full here

So, why do I find  Polly Tommey  ick?

Polly Tommey first really got noticed as the mum of an autistic child in 2004 when she and dear husband, Jonathan, appeared on the sensationalist Tonight With Trevor McDonald. If you’ve never seen the show it makes the Daily Mail seem moderate. They were there saying how they were successfully treating Billy’s autism with secretin (a hormone involved in digestion). When that bandwagon slowed to a near halt Tommeys, Mr & Mrs hopped on to the biomedical interventions one  gathering pace in the States.

Jonathan, a disciple of Patrick Holford,  is now making money calling himself a nutritionist (a title that means very little – the protected term is dietician) and encouraging parents to put their children on highly restrictive gluten and casein free diets (a bit more about that here). These diets can and do lead to nutrient deficits but, don’t fear, at the same £300 consultation, Mr Tommey will sell you all the supplements you could possibly need – if you uncritically follow his nonsensical advice – to make sure that  your child get will these nutrients eating a regular diet would provide. Meanwhile, you can also purchase from him all you need to   get rid of all the fungi and “bad bacteria” in their little bellies too.

Polly Tommy gets my back up. I think that’s pretty obvious. She’s always trotted out whenever there’s an autism story that gets any media attention and quite often what she says is tempered, sensible and I have no problem with. Here’s an example (she’s talking about potential diagnosis of autism by brain scanning):

Very moderate but here is a woman who is a die hard supporter of Andrew Wakefield despite the fact he has been struck off the medical register in the UK, his studies have been proved to be not just unrepeatable but fraudulent and those studies lacked ethics committee sanction. Wakefield and Murch (a co-author) did not stop at one study lacking ethics board approval. One child involved in the further research at the Royal Free,  Jack Piper, then aged 5 nearly lost his life as a result of a botched colonoscopy that was not “clinically indicated or justified.” His bowel was left perforated in 12 places – technically an assault.

This is the woman who, by posing in her bra, got invited to 10 Downing Street to advise the Prime Minister of the day, Gordon Brown on autism policy.  Dr Michael Fitzpatrick, author of Defeating Autism: a Damaging Delusion, himself a father of an autistic son made his own approach to PM Brown upon learning of Tommey’s invite to #10:

“in the interests of children and families affected by autism, I hope that you will refuse support for her key activities – upholding discredited links between vaccines and autism and recommending unproven and untested fringe treatments”


“If she demands that the government invest more resources in researching alleged links between vaccines and autism, I suggest that she should be advised that this would be a waste of scarce funds. If she demands government support for unorthodox biomedical testing and treatment, I would further suggest that she should be advised that until there is good evidence for such interventions parents should be discouraged from imposing them on their children”

Here’s Polly Tommey giving Wakefield yet another outlet for his contemptuous crap:

On one hand she poses as some kind of crusader for access to resources and for public funding to make autism easier to live with for all those affected by it and on the other she and her odious husband Jonathan are fleecing desperate parents of autistic children out of what little time and money they have in the pursuit of quackery: time and money better spent elsewhere.

If you still think she’s ok and at least a more credible voice than Jenny McCarthy, then you should look at this…I recommend muting first though!




      1. mercury is out of vaccines as of April 2008 is cerlaly lying.You cant eliminate disease or illness if you allow the cause to continue.A simple thing like nits never stops to amaze me.The removal of nits from everyones hair on one day would result in it being a health problem of the past.It continues to make millions for the pharma industry and chemicals not unrelated in their action to mercury.Place this neurotoxin on the head of the child and leave to soak in for 12 hours.Is this not CONSPIRACY? In the army short hair is one way out of a nit crisis. Does the pharma companies have an interest in eradicating a health problem or do they want to make piles of money?France does have a good health system but the chemists or pharmacie seems to be one of the few shops or magazines that survive in even the smallest towns and cities.Once a child becomes autistic the costs of the child become astronomic. This in itself is of concern to a conspiracist that believes not everyone is a saint in our world and not every tyrant is immediately obvious.

    1. A cause of autismThere has to be a cause for anhntiyg.Faith and religion even have some basis in fact.If vaccines cause autism this doesn’t mean that mercury cant cause autism.If GMO virus fragments cause autism then that doesn’t rule out the first two.The problem is that all three and more are found in vaccines.One of the problems with epidemiology is that the world famous experts like Sir Dick Doll were paid 1 500 pounds each and and every day of their life by vaccine type companies. To receive such money for the major part of ones career may or may not have an effect on your data and what it tells you?I know what I would say or not say if offered 1 500 pounds each day to say whather vaccines are good or bad. And that is yesterday’s money as the good epidemiologist is no longer part of the human race if ever he was. He did have the qualifications that should have made him aware of what is money for research and what constitutes a bribe?I put my money anyday on Jenny in preference to a Dick Doll.There are more than a million autism sufferers and Jenny does not have one in her family.Her degree in Google or whatever has enabled her to cure the uncurable.Power to her elbow and not to hands in pockets feeling for corrupt money?

      1. Pharmacies do more than dispense medication, they can give basic medical advice (i.e. what should someone use for hayfever or a cold.etc), instead of you going to your GP for every little minor thing.
        There is no conspiracy. Pharmaceutical companies are in the business of making and keeping people well. If they deliberately made people sick, then that would make their business model pointless.

  1. What point are you making? That you dont like the music video she made in the 80s? or her tits? Or her legs? or you are jealous that the media like her moderate views? Or it is that you think it is wrong that she does not distance herself from Wakefield? Or that you think she does not care enough? If this is your point than I nearly missed it in your childish, bitter and pointless character assassination

    1. Actually I think she’s got a fab figure – I certainly wouldn’t mind one like that!
      This blog contains my opinions and thoughts. If you find it childish that’s your opinion and you’re entitled to it and its expression as you see fit.
      As the above shows I agree with Mrs Tommey on various issues but find her support for Wakefield beyond acceptable as is the promotion of the fantasy that vaccines cause autism and that diet, supplements etc can treat it. I think that’s pretty clear.

      1. What scientific research has been done to prove what dr Wakefield studied is wrong? Some metals are bad for us and it was well known since the Greeks and the Romans and by other cultures as well. Lead and mercury are toxic to humans. I just wonder before pharmaceutical companies put the three vaccines together there was not an explosion of ads as we started to have since they began to inject them together in children’s blood stream. Does it not make you wonder why? There must be something that the body of certain individuals don’t process as well as the rest of us. Where there is money involved, anything can happen.

      2. Then in your opinion (not scientific evidence) other than genes, what is causing ,the explosion of autism we are having now a days? Some research points that vaccines show somehow to be the cause of certain cases of autism. Just because some people and big companies and federal justices in the US said there is not link, other people say otherwise. You show bitterness in your comments toward Wakefield and Tommey. I put my personal views aside and focus on something that may help future generation instead of the pocket books of some pharma.

      3. There is no “explosion” in autism. What have Tommey and Wakefield done but line their own pockets and massage each other’s egoes? I work everyday to make the lives of people with disabilities and their carers better everyday and I don’t take a penny off those people to do it. You can’t say the same for the Tommeys and Wake fields fleecing struggling families (and charities) to pay for unproven and dangerous quackery. You have no idea what I do because I don’t flash my baps on a billboard to let everyone know all about ME, ME, ME!

      4. You are right, I have no idea of what you do and honestly I don’t care but one thing is clear, because of what some people are doing for special needs people others are starting to learn what autism is. Many people in many places have no idea what ASD is or Asperger’s syndrome is. So it is not just about ME, ME….. As you say, it’s about opening a window and let people know what big pharma is doing and what we are exposed to. Do you believe everything big pharma offers you to cure a specific illness or you try to find a second opinion and look for other options? If vaccines are not the cause of some cases of autism at least we now know that mercury was contained in those vaccines and now Big Pharma companies are “voluntarily” removing said metal. Now doctors tell parents about different vaccines to choose from and what they contain.
        Why do you have to sound so bitter?
        Help to the ones in need is the key.

      5. Someone who loves, respects and accepts their autistic child for who he is sounds bitter? You need a dictionary, darling.

  2. Hi there, I am interested to know what makes you so sure that vaccinations do not cause Autism? How much research has there actually been on the subject. Do you know?

    I suggest you keep an open mind and watch a couple of interesting You Tube videos and see if it makes you doubt a few things you may feel certain about at present. Watch the movie Autism made in the USA and also the interview with Jenny McCarthy on the Doctors show (search for Autism debate with Jenny McCarthy on the Doctors) and have a listen to some facts presented by J D Handley. All is not as it seems in the vaccinations and Autism debate.

    The stats raised n the film Autism made in the USA where cases of Autism went up hand in hand with the number of vaccinations given to children increased during the 1990’s. In the USA it increased from 11 in 1989 to 32 shots today. And it’s not just the MMR which is two vaccinations. There are trace amounts of thalidomide (mercury) in most of the vaccinations. Mercury is one of the most toxic substances known to man yet it is being used as a preservative with little or no testing.

    Do not believe everything you hear regarding what is released in the public domain regarding vaccinations being safe and can’t cause Autism. Pharmaceutical companies business are billion dollar industries. And while some children have immune system vulnerabilities they are still receiving the same amount of vaccines whether they are a 5lb premature baby of a 10lb full term baby. That doesn’t make sense and can trigger Autism in those who are vulnerable.

    There are genetic markers which are now being identified which increase the chances of certain individuals developing Autism and vaccinations can be the catalyst.

    Trust me and do not think you know it all. There is plenty still to learn on the subject. Personally I think Polly Tommey’s heart is in the right place and as a voice for Autism I think she should be thanked not ridiculed. We need people to try and raise awareness regarding Autism which is at epidemic levels at the moment. But that is my opinion. Please just check out the things I have highlighted in this post and let me know your thoughts once you have watched them.

    1. I’ve seen the footage of anti vaxxers screaming their heads off on Doctors it is neither a debate or very becoming. I make my mind up on issues of science based on the scietific literature and not you tube videos or chat shows. I have watched that which you suggested and found nothing but unsubstantiated polemic, scare mongering, false hood and logical fallacies left, right and centre.
      An awful lot of time has been spent investigating the proposed link between vaccines and autism. Here’s just one study:
      http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22184954 This one even suggests vaccination could be protective against autism.
      This is a study from Poland but there have been Japanese studies, Canadian studies, US studies, UK studies to point to just a few and a famous Danish study all of which had many more than just 12 subjects and none of which found that autism is linked to vaccines.

      Vaccines do not contain thalidomide. Even if they did that would not cause autism. Thalidomide taken very early in pregnancy can, however and taken slightly later causes the shortened limbs associated with thalidomide’s toxicity. I think what you’re referring to is thimerosal. This is an anti-microbial agent that contains ethyl-mercury which has never been shown to be toxic even when given in doses of in 2million micrograms (10 thousand times what used to be in the total US vaccination schedule) as it was, to vast numbers of people, in 1929 to treat bacterial meningitis. Sadly it had no efficacy in doing so but it was well tolerated and no serious side effects reported. These days thimerosal is only found in some (not all) influenza vaccines as it was removed during the late 1990s.

      As for the rates of autism increasing there are good reasons for that. Primary among them is the widening of the definitions of autism to include individuals at the higher functioning end of the autistic spectrum and general awareness of autism itself has increased dramatically.


      Where are the studies that show this? I can’t find any

      1. Thank you MOC, When our son was diagnosed just after his 4th birthday, we started to read up on autism. The Wakefield report did not ring true to me right from the start, mainly because I am a nurse and to my mind if vaccinations are the cause of autism, there would be many, many more people with autism around, even more than the so called recent explosion that has taken place. I agree with you that it has more to do with general awareness of autism and the widening of the boundaries of the spectrum. These vaccinations has been around for a long time and if it really did have a link to autism, it would have been discovered a lot sooner.

    2. Agree. Open mind is the key, that way all of us can participate and give ideas and at the same time accept ideas of others. At least Wakefield did some research and drew some conclusions, not definite conclusions but something that others should have taken in consideration to pursue more needed research. We are talking about lives that are affected by this neurological condition, lives not only of the individuals who have it but their families as well and yet the pharmaceutical industry made it happen, I mean the financial support for more research stopped.

      1. Nonsense! If there is one thing we do know doesn’t cause autism it’s vaccines. Autism research had been stuck in a cul de sac for more than a decade thanks to Wakefield and his cronies.

  3. I am aware of those studies, and more, looking into the genetics and possible markers making earlier diagnosis possible or at least somewhat more reliable but these nor any other suggest that these gene differences make an individual more suseptible to any vaccine injury much less that vaccines may cause autism in such individuals. So, again, show me a well conducted, peer reviewed study (ideally one that has been replicated) demonstrating that genetic differences combined with vaccination leads to autism.

    1. Are you familiar with the book The Age of Autism written by Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill? One of them is the father of a child with autism (so am I) and the other one is a journalist who has written widely about autism. In their book the name David Kirby caught my attention because of his book “Evidence of Harm”. In this one Kirby points out the fact that parents themselves first connected the rise of mercury exposure via vaccines with the “explosion of autism” starting in 1990. I made that comment even before I had read “The Age of Autism” and you in your own words expressed; There is no “explosion” in autism. We see there is such a thing because there is an explosion in using mercury in vaccines. There is a link between this heavy poisonous metal and autism and other diseases. That cannot be denied any more.
      My point is that vaccines don’t cause autism. Mercury is the heavy metal, contained in vaccines in the form of Thimerosal, that causes neurological damage in individuals and one of those damages is reflected as autism. Any reasonable mind is capable to understand that.

      1. Actually, there was a sharp decrease in the manufacture of vaccines containing (non-poisonous) ethyl mercury and only the flu vaccine contains it now, yet rates continue to increase. I suppose the better detection of autistic people in the black and Hispanic communities of the US has absolutely nothing to with that. (-_Q)

  4. About a month ago my son spent a couple of days in the hospital (a teaching hospital next to a university). When I went to the gift shop for coffee I saw they were selling “Autism FIle”, the American version with one article by Kim Stagliano of Age of Autism.

    I wrote a letter of complaint to the hospital, noting that that magazine goes against their infection control policies (which included offering my son an influenza vaccine before he was discharged). I recently received a note the remaining copies were removed. They say that the magazine distributor claimed to have put that rag in the shipment by mistake. I am still suspicious.

    (I bought a copy to refer to as I wrote the letter, it is indeed a very bad magazine)

      1. that all vaccines are 100% safe. No meidcine or substance known to mankind is (not even water or salt). I have no idea whether Sally Clark was railroaded or not. But even if she was, it proves nothing concerning vaccines and autism.As to Sir Richard Doll, I am not very familiar with him. But from reading , it appears that he did a lot in identifying things like tobacco and radiation as being harmful, and in pushing for doctors to get their patients to quit. Sounds admirable to me.As to cancer, I would think the biggest reason that cancer rates have gone up is that we are an older society than we used to be. As meidcine has gotten better at things like heart disease, we live longer and get more cancer. There are probably also some environmental and dietary factors, but I would think increasing age is the biggest factor.AIDS? Are you saying that vaccines cause AIDS? Where do you get this stuff?Oh, and anaphylaxis? I don’t get what you’re referencing with that. But if you’re saying that Sally Clark’s kids died from anaphylaxis, I’d say you’re wrong. I’ve treated people with anaphylaxis. It happens in seconds to minutes, not hours.Thanks for replying again. Joe

    1. Well, this certainly is a “smoking gun”:”The Chinese setcoiy for Autism did not exist before 2000 and something.”And this proves….what? Perhaps John/Quicksilver isn’t aware that China is not as open as the US, UK and EU to the formation of groups, associations and clubs. The American Society for Microbiology wasn’t formed until 1899. Does that mean that microbes didn’t exist in the US until the late 1800’s? How about the National Down Syndrome Society, formed in 1979? Does that mean that Down Syndrome didn’t exist in the US until the 1970’s?What twaddle!He goes on to say a number of other half-truths and full-falsehoods, including numerous references to Sally Clark, whose conviction was a gross miscarriage of justice. However, I can find no evidence that she or her legal team ever argued that vaccines caused the deaths of two of her children.Sad to say, but “Quicksilver” appears to be suffering from the delusional thinking and megalomania seen in true mercury poisoning. Perhaps the mercury-induced tremor (a nearly universal sign) is causing his poor spelling and puctuation.A concerned citizen

  5. What good to anyone does this scandalous gossip do? Hats off to both Jenny and Polly. How about focusing on helping those with Autism???

    1. in response to gossip, that comment did not get highlighted for moderation but, as unsubstantiated rumour has now been removed. Thank you for drawing my attention to it.

    2. Opposing people who lie about autism is helping people with autism; it’s not glamorous to mop up the messes Polly and Jenny make, but it’s necessary, and as a parent who isn’t interested in hating my autistic child, I appreciate Autismum’s work – it won’t get her cover stories in the grocery store rags, but it helps real children.

      1. Yes, indeed. Wakefield is now part of a great American tradition of pseudomedicine. I feel more sympathy for Polly T as at least she has an autistic child and is not simply a vain greedy bad doctor. Charlotte Moore, mother of two autistic sons was able to examine her family tree for indications of ancestors possibly on the autistic spectrum.
        For those who still believe in the exploded MMR cause, please check the Danish records. Denmark has wonderfully full health recording. All parents who refused MMR, for whatever reason were noted and compared with an equivalent cohort who accepted; the result the incidence of autism was the same in both cohorts. Often those with an autistic child can see genetic factors. A friend whose eldest son was a high functioning autistic spectrum child, saw a similarity with his father.

  6. , the dose makes the poison. And it is coplmetely possible for us to come through exposures to things that we consider “poisons” without ill effects–the dose makes the difference. Water is a toxin, depending on the route of exposure and dose. But I don’t see anyone getting their knickers twisted over water, per se, being “toxic.” Vitamin C at a suitable dose can trigger miscarriage. Potassium is required for our survival, but it can also kill us. People have always been walking around with heavy metals in their bodies (zinc, anyone?), at considerably higher doses than those currently causing controversy (including mercury and arsenic). The irony is that probably many many people who get cacacoocoo over mercury wouldn’t hesitate to ingest a metal like iron or selenium or to coat their bodies in an oxide of one like zinc or to drink from an aluminum can or use aluminum foil and they probably spend little to no time at all worrying about lead, which is all over the place. Mercury is a scare word, but if the fear is legitimate, we also ought to be going on and on about lead, arsenic, aluminum, PBDEs, POPs, and other known toxins that flow through our bodies–vaccines or not.

  7. I think vaccines may well cause autism when given after numerous courses of antibiotics over a short period of time. The gut is left unprotected and unable to cope with the vaccines. You may scoff, but there are many parents who will tell you that very noticeable symptoms started suddenly and immediately after the vaccine and a number will also confirm that their children were prescribed antibiotics left, right and centre in the months leading up to the vaccine. Of course studies that show any sort of link to this would be discredited, as if it were proved, there would be grounds for compensation on a massive scale for all the families whose lives have been ruined.

    1. Ivy Green, I agree 100% with what you are saying. That is precisely what Dr. Wakefield was studying and his license was revoked in the UK.

  8. It’s refreshing to see that the U.K. has lots of idiot anti-vaxxers, too. I thought it was a U.S. phenomenon. It’s amazing to me that Wakefield has been able to convince so many with a poorly designed study and fabricated data. By the way, Alberto, that i
    s not what Wakefield was studying and his license was revoked because of fabricated data and other wholly unethical behavior.

  9. Polly Tommey is mature and strong. You on the other hand have stooped to the lowest degree in order to defame and put her down. There is no contest on who I would rather believe- I don’t pay attention to immature, disgusting, abusive individuals like yourself. Shame on you. You claim the anti-vaxxers are abusive but that is rubbish, it is almost always the other way around as you have so conveniently displayed above. In the end you are just making yourself look foolish.

  10. At the start of my career, in the first school I worked in there was a little girl. her family had received a payout from the UK government (without admitting liability) as they proved beyond doubt that she had been vaccine damaged. Her grandad had been a cinema projectionist and home movies had been filmed in their house constantly. They literally had a day by day film of this little girl right up until her MMR. She gabbled, she played, she played ball with you, she said odd words like dada, dink, quack quack, cup; pointed to things in books, she had started to feed herself, she would sing the ends of songs like “Fall down” on ring a ringa roses….or “you are” on Twinkle Twinkle. Then came the day of the vaccine and within two hours she was screaming nonstop. No play, no verbal communication, no songs. Her screaming sounded like she was in agony. When she exhausted herself, she just lay on the side of the cot, moaning. And she never recovered. Medical experts agreed that a genetic or environmental predisposition may have worked with the vaccine to cause the damage. But the government wouldn’t admit it – just paid out without actually admitting it because can you imagine the floodgates?
    I deplore Wakefield’s methods. But I have taught too many children with leaky gut, plus this little girl, not to see some sense in what he says, And he ALWAYS said it needed to be investigated more – and the government never did that.

  11. There’s also the fact that that nasty waste of oxygen said she understood why parents would kill their autistic children. Well, I for one completely understand and sympathise with any autistic person who kills a parent in self-defence. :p

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