[10][11][9] In 1972, Harold Evans, then editor of The Sunday Times, recruited Wallace into the Insight Team of the newspaper to work on the thalidomide scandal.

The article is credited with helping to persuade Distillers, the company that distributed and marketed the drugs, to offer compensation to victims of the scandal.

[16][12][15] Wallace later turned Wiles’ story into a book and a screenplay, On Giant’s Shoulders, for a BBC television film broadcast in 1979 starring Judi Dench.

They focused on misconceptions about mental illness, the anguish and neglect of sufferers and families, and the failures of the community care policy.

[13] In 1986, as a result of the scale of the public response to The Forgotten Illness articles, Marjorie Wallace founded SANE.

[6][22] Following the launch of the charity, Wallace recruited support for SANE from key figures in medicine, science, business, industry and the media, including Prince Charles as its first patron.

[10][9] Minette Marrin in The Sunday Times wrote of Wallace: “She stands firmly and consciously in the tradition of 19th-century social reformers like Charles Dickens.”[2] In 1992, Wallace founded SANEline, the UK's first national specialist out-of-hours mental health helpline, offering information and emotional support to individuals, families, carers, professionals, and the public.

The book brought the twins to international attention, with Oliver Sacks writing that it was “a remarkable and tragic study in its depth, penetration and detail.” Wallace wrote the screenplay for the BBC film directed by Jon Amiel.

[31][32] Wallace was later the partner of Tom Margerison, founder of the New Scientist magazine and co-founder of London Weekend Television.