Local polio survivors determined to stamp out debilitating disease

For over 35 years Rotary has played a key role in the effort to eradicate polio, helping reduce polio cases by 99.9% since our first project to vaccinate children in 1979.

With wild poliovirus now endemic in only two countries, our goal of eliminating polio is within sight. But more work needs to be done to prevent the disease that has no cure. In fact, if all eradication efforts stopped today, within ten years polio could paralyse as many as 200,000 children annually.

As World Polio Day approaches on 24 October, hear from two Rotary members who contracted polio as children before a vaccine was available. Both experience the debilitating impacts of the disease to this day, and both are determined to ensure polio becomes a relic of the past.

Susanne Rea OAM, Rotary Cairns Sunrise

After Susanne contracted polio at four years old, she was paralysed from the waist down and kept isolated in hospital for a year, only able to see her parents through a window.

Despite eventually recovering from the paralysis and undergoing multiple remedial operations, Susanne now experiences the ongoing effects of post-polio syndrome, a disorder that can cause muscle weakness and loss, joint degeneration, fatigue, joint and muscle pain, and breathing and swallowing problems.

Unable to walk distances, Susanne uses a wheelchair when she goes out.

“Polio hits you twice. There are hundreds of thousands of Australians now living with post-polio syndrome because there was no vaccine when they were children, so I can’t stress enough that it’s really important to put an end to polio once and for all.

“My message is to keep your vaccination schedule up, including anti-polio immunisation. All parents need to ensure their children are vaccinated for every childhood disease.

“Just because we don’t have polio in our region right now, it doesn’t mean it can’t come back. People travel so much; we need to take the lessons from COVID.

“Polio spreads in a very silent way, and we only need to get some travellers come in who have got the polio virus in their body without knowing and give it to somebody else quietly, to have polio back in our region.

“So I must stress that polio will remain at bay in our region as long as parents and grandparents are really cognisant of keeping the childhood vaccination rates up.”

Susanne Rea is the founder of World’s Greatest Meal, an initiative that has raised over $14 million to help end polio. Visit the website to learn how your club can host an event such as a café breakfast, picnic lunch, high tea or dinner party to raise funds to eradicate polio.

Bruce McNaught, Rotary Club of Brisbane

Bruce, who contracted polio in 1955 at five years old, says the disease “made a terrible mess out of my childhood.”

Bedridden for nine months, Bruce gradually recovered with intensive physiotherapy but never regained full muscle control. This prevented him from participating fully in sports and fulfilling his childhood dream of learning to play the guitar.

“Being able to write properly and play sport and music was very important to me as a young person. My childhood was pretty miserable and I became rebellious of those around me who didn’t think I was trying very hard.”

To this day he experiences the ongoing effects of post-polio syndrome. His muscle weakness only allows him to walk for short stints, while standing up for longer than a few minutes causes intense pain.

“One of the evil things about having polio is that it attacks the motor neurons but not the sensory neurons, so you can’t move but it still hurts terribly. Such a dreadful thing to happen to a child.

“Once I discovered that Rotary wanted to eradicate this disease from the earth through the End Polio Now program, I couldn’t wait to join. Polio has a devastating effect on a child and to know that my efforts will enable kids to live their lives walking tall gives me enormous satisfaction.”

If you’d like to join the effort to eradicate polio, consider hosting a Polio Movie Event or other fundraising activity to commemorate World Polio Day. Visit the End Polio Now website to access useful resources for your fundraising event.