Editing Fatima Whitbread (section)

==Early life==
Fatima Vedad was born on 3 March 1961 in [[Stoke Newington]], London,<ref name="ADIE">{{cite book |last=Adie |first=Kate |title=Nobody's Child |chapter=2. What is your mother's name? |year=2005 |edition=Digital |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |location=London |isbn=978-1848943605 |via=Google Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e1Co-gt-FDIC |access-date=24 October 2022 |archive-date=3 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230203132354/https://books.google.com/books?id=e1Co-gt-FDIC |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |publisher=United Kingdom Athletics |title=Fatima Whitbread |url=http://www.uka.org.uk/e-inspire/hall-of-fame-athletes/fatima-whitbread |access-date=18 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111012172640/http://uka.org.uk/e-inspire/hall-of-fame-athletes/fatima-whitbread/ |archive-date=12 October 2011 }}</ref> to an unmarried [[Turkish Cypriot]] mother and [[Greek Cypriot]] father.<ref name="observer.guardian.co.uk">{{cite web |last=Jackson |first=Jamie |url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0,,904199,00.html |title=Triumph and despair: Fatima Whitbread | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925184935/http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0,,904199,00.html |date=2 March 2003 |work=The Observer |archive-date=25 September 2012 }}</ref> She said "I was abandoned as a baby and left to die in our flat." After being rescued, severely malnourished, "I spent the next 14 years living in institutions, among other traumatised children",<ref>{{cite news| last=Myers | first=Hayley | title=Fatima Whitbread: 'I was abandoned as a baby, but I'm one of the lucky ones'| newspaper=The Guardian | date=5 October 2024 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/oct/05/fatima-whitbread-i-was-abandoned-as-a-baby-but-im-one-of-the-lucky-ones}}</ref> occasionally being left in the care of her abusive biological mother.<ref name="ADIE"/> In a 2003 interview with ''[[The Observer]]'', she said, "it was a nightmare of a childhood and it was only because I loved sport so much that I got through it and met my true [adoptive] mother."<ref name="observer.guardian.co.uk"/>

{{Quote box
 |quote  = Some credit for my choice of sport must go to the javelin itself. It is not only a magical event, it is a beautiful one. The flight of the javelin is a glorious sight, and, as I very soon discovered, letting go was a fantastic feeling.
 |author = from ''Fatima: The Autobiography of Fatima Whitbread'' |source =(1988)<ref name="FWAUTO"/>{{rp|98}}|width=25%|align=left}}
Vedad started throwing the [[javelin]] aged 11.<ref name="TEAMGB"/> According to her account, she had taken up an interest in track and field events after being inspired by the myth of [[Atalanta]], "whom no man could outrun except by cheating, and whose javelin killed a terrible monster"; and by [[Mary Peters (athlete)|Mary Peters]], who won the gold medal at the [[Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Women's pentathlon|1972 Summer Olympics' women's pentathlon]].<ref name="FWAUTO">{{cite book |last1=Whitbread |first1=Fatima |last2=Blue |first2=Adrianne |title=Fatima: The Autobiography of Fatima Whitbread |publisher=Pelham |location=London |year=1988 |isbn=978-0720718560 }}</ref>{{rp|96}} Vedad met javelin thrower [[David Ottley]] at a stadium and asked him if she could use his javelin. He asked her to wait until the [[coach (sport)|coach]] arrived. The coach was [[Margaret Callender|Margaret Whitbread]], a physical education teacher at a local school, whom Vedad had previously met when Whitbread refereed a [[netball]] match that she played in. After discovering that Vedad stayed at a children's home, Margaret Whitbread passed on some boots and a javelin from a girl who had retired from the event.<ref name="ADIE"/> Three years later, Vedad was [[adoption|adopted]] by Margaret Whitbread and her family.<ref name="observer.guardian.co.uk"/> She spent her teenage years in [[Chadwell St Mary]], Essex, where she attended the [[Torells School]] in nearby [[Grays, Essex|Grays]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Read|first=Julian|date=9 May 2016|title=Joe Pasquale: Essex boy at heart|url=https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/people/joe-pasquale-essex-boy-at-heart-6986078|access-date=28 November 2021|website=Great British Life|language=en-UK|archive-date=28 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128184750/https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/people/joe-pasquale-essex-boy-at-heart-6986078|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="SURV"/>{{rp|152}}