Trio’s India polio quest
MORE than 60 years after their own battle with polio, four Geelong friends have travelled to India to join the global fight to eradicate the virus.
Gary Newton, Jennifer Merrett, Jan McDonald and Dalice Dalton, now aged in their 60s and 70s, each contracted polio as youngsters.
Once one of the most feared and easily spread diseases in the developed world, vaccinations from 1956 were successful in wiping it out in Australia.
The group of Rotary Ambassadors were invited by World Health Organisation worker and Rotarian Jenny Horton on the trip to India to help create awareness of polio, and the importance of vaccination for children under five, during India’s coming National Immunisation Days.
They left for the trip on Monday.
Mr Newton contracted polio at 15 months and spent a month in medical isolation before learning to walk in cali- pers and use a wheelchair, aids he still uses.
Ms Merrett, now in her mid-70s, had a milder form.
A “funny walk, deformed feet and lung issues” had her suspecting she got the virus when she was about seven.
The diagnosis was only officially confirmed in 2016.
Although India was de- clared “polio-free” by WHO in 2011, it is still considered at risk of an outbreak due to it having the highest number of unvaccinated children in the world.
More than one in five deaths of children under five in the world happen in India, with more than half due to vaccine- preventable and treatable infections.
During the 10-day trip the group will help vaccination teams and visit the polio ward at a local hospital to provide encouragement to patients.
They will also visit Global Aid India, a polio support organisation dedicated to helping local survivors.
There the Geelong travellers will talk about the late effects of polio and try to motivate and inspire those living with a disability.
The group raised $65,000 to fund the trip via a Go Fund Me page.
Additional money will go to support Polio Australia.