I had polio when I was 6 years old.  It was 1949, and some 350,000 persons, most of them children like me, were also diagnosed with polio that year.  Many were hospitalized, many were paralyzed, some had to live in iron lungs...and some didn’t live at all.  I was lucky – I got to go home for hot baths and leg rubdowns by my mother until I could start school.

 

My greatest handicap – or so I thought – was being cross-eyed and having double vision. But then, about 10 years ago, when I was 73, polio came back into my life as post-polio syndrome.  I began to have drop foot and to fall, more and more often as the months passed.  I started wearing a brace (an AFO) to prevent falls, then I started using walking sticks occasionally.

 

Last week, I realized this is my life and it won’t change for the better.  I have had polio and I am crippled.

 

World Polio Day is October 24. You and I can help prevent polio from affecting the children of the world by making a special donation on World Polio Day to PolioPlus, Rotary’s special fund to help eradicate polio.  Please make a special donation at www.rotary.org/donate today!  I intend to...