‘We must eradicate polio’
Having met on a polio ward as babies, husband and wife David and Sue Smith are sharing their story now to help eliminate the disease worldwide
Those who grew up in the grip of Britain’s polio epidemic will remember how the disease cast a shadow of fear down every street as nearly 8,000 people were affected every year in the UK in the Forties and Fifties. Whether you remember the children treated in rows of iron lungs or were given the sugar cube vaccine against it, the threat of polio was once in everyone’s mind. Today, however, thanks to a mass public immunisation programme, polio is, for many of us, just a distant memory. In fact, in 1994, Britain was finally declared polio-free. This is obviously great news but polio isn’t a thing of the past for everyone. David and Sue Smith are a couple who, having contracted the disease as babies are still living with the consequences of polio today. It was 1949 when David, then a year old and Sue, 15 months, who lived in the same village in Gravesend, Kent, were infected by polio. “There’d been an outbreak and people were worried. Our families couldn’t take any precautions against it as they didn’t know where it was coming from and it was before a vaccine had been developed,” says retired teacher Sue (69).
All of David and Sue’s siblings were infected but as only one in 100 people who get polio develop symptoms, it was only Sue and David who became unwell. They began having muscle spasms and fevers and were later diagnosed as having polio. Almost immediately, they were transferred to the same polio ward on the marshes of Gravesend miles away from their families, with the aim of stopping the spread of infection. “We were in hospital for about six months,” says Sue. “Barely anyone could visit as it was hard to get to and incomes were low. When family did come, they could only see us from behind a screen. Everything we came in with was burnt, too, along with my little teddy.” As polio attacks the nerves controlling muscles, it can, at worst, paralyse the body. For some, the muscles in the chest are paralysed meaning patients require an iron lung to breathe. For others, such as Sue and David, polio paralysed their legs and they’ve had to walk with leg braces ever since. “The paralysis restricted my mobility in as much as I couldn’t run around like the other boys when I was older,” says David. “But you learned to adjust to things.” This can-do attitude may seem astonishing, but Sue and David insists it was normal at a time when many children in their neighbourhood were living with similar difficulties caused by polio. “You just got on with it and dealt with what you had,” says Sue. It was this positive spirit that Sue and David found they had in common when they met again in their teens, obviously unable to remember their time on the polio ward together as babies, but having kept in touch through their families who remained friends. “We kept meeting at parties in the Sixties and eventually began courting. We’ve now been married 44 years,” says Sue. During that time, Sue and David haven’t let polio get in the way of anything. Both had busy careers, active lifestyles and raised two children. “It hasn’t stopped us having a good life. We just have to plan ahead when we go out. And our families have adjusted. For example, when we babysit our grandchildren they have got used to being carried upstairs under my arm and have learnt to sit down and shuffle on their bottoms to get downstairs, because that’s how Granny does it,” laughs Sue. Although life hasn’t always been easy, Sue and David are so thankful to have lived through polio in Britain. “We’re very grateful we grew up with the NHS and were able to make use of the wonderful equipment we had,” says Sue. “In other countries today many polio sufferers have to get around on skateboards or by crawling. And where, for example, we can get adaptations for our home, they can’t get any help.” That’s why Sue and David are backing the One Last Push Campaign which supports global efforts to end polio once and for all. They welcome the recent commitment of the UK to immunise up to 45 million children against the disease each year until 2020 which will save more than 65,000 children from paralysis every year, including in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria where polio is still endemic. David and Sue are asking others to sign up to One Last Push. “Polio has been with us for thousands of years and we’re on the brink of eradicating it, so we mustn’t stop now. We want to ensure that we were one of the last generations to suffer from polio, saving thousands of others from having to live with the consequences of this preventable disease, “says David. “If it can make a difference reminding people what life was like when we had polio in Britain, then we’re proud to help,” says Sue.
If you would like to find out more about how you can help the One Last Push campaign, visit www.onelastpush.org or write to One Last Push, 36 Golden Square, London W1F 9EE
‘We kept meeting at parties in the Sixties and eventually began courting. We’ve now been married 44 years’