As a clinical psychologist, one of the first questions Chris Tennyson asks his patients is about their family medical history. It’s a question which carries a personal irony as for decades it’s a question Chris couldn’t answer himself.

Adopted as a young infant, his adoptive family never received any family health history, a situation which as Chris found out, could have been life threatening. Chris’s birth dad had a life threatening condition…and it could be hereditary. 

After years of waiting for tests, Chris discovered that he had inherited Malignant Hyperthermia,  a rare genetic condition which causes a life- threatening reaction to certain medications used in medical settings. Had Chris required an operation under general anaesthetic , he could well have taken a reaction that resulted in serious organ damage or death. Whereas had this been known, alternative medications and procedures could have been administered to remove this risk.

For Chris, this was not only a huge shock but it got him thinking about how many other people could be affected and could he do anything that meant nobody else would have to face a similar situation.

He started to reach out to politicians, social services and the Dept of Health to investigate solutions around operational and legislative change that would mean crucial family health history would be shared with adoptive families. 

He joined join the adult adoptee advisory board of the organisation, Adoption UK and added questions to the 2025 UK-wide research project, the Adoption Barometer to capture other adoptees experience of this entire journey related to accessing medical histories and barriers encountered so that more could be learned about the scope of this issue to continue to lobby and advocate for changes in practice and procedures.

There was one thing that Chris said really drove home the importance of this experience. The stigma which still surrounds those who are adopted. The sense that they should be grateful for their new existence and not question the processes, the policies that create the adoption process. 

But for Chris, this dysfunction in the system could have meant the difference between life and death. So his goal is that he can change the rules so this never happens to any other adopted person again.