My name is Grace and I survived Polio

Yesterday I was in the office and my mobile rang. It was a Greenock number and when I answered a women introduced herself as Grace, she was enquiring about my End of Polio Party.

I had handed out letters seeking raffle prizes and put up posters about how to get tickets so I was quite excited at the phone call. Raffle prizes had came in thick and fast but we could always use more right?

"Thank you so much for phoning Grace, how can I help you?"

"Well, having survived Polio I would like to contribute to the campaign."

......

An Iron Lung ward at a hospital treating Polio sufferers.

Grace is 80 years old and living in Inverclyde.  She contracted Polio when she was 6 years old and because very ill. She remembers being in hospital for a long time, aware of others who were sick. Vividly she recalls a man who was in an iron lung; she didn't know at the time but severe cases of Polio can paralyse the lungs and cause death.

Grace missed two years of school - "we didn't have teachers in the hospital in those days love, we just lay there"

Grace survived Polio but has had limited mobility in her legs ever since. She tells me how she never saw herself as disabled and worked hard at school to catch up. She went on to work, she has travelled and had a family of her own.

Grace is an 80 year old women who has survived Polio. She lives right here in the UK.

Grace is an inspiration.


N.B. Grace has given her permission for me to share her story.