For fear of exposure to the virus, the ambulance would not take Arlene and another little girl to the hospital: they were taken to the hospital in a hearse.

Bonnie was only two; one minute she was walking and the next she was not. At age 22 she started a 45-year journey as an International Public Health advisor that would take her around the world.

“Late in the summer of 1952, a microscopic virus entered my body and changed my life forever . . .”

I contracted polio when I was 5. We lived in West Virginia, where there was only a small clinic. . .

As polio survivors we understand. Spinal taps, visits only through a window and no touch between a child an their parent.

Carol was only two when she had the "summer flu“. She got better on her own, no doctor was ever called. Finally, at 90 years of age, her mother revealed that deep down, they always knew it was polio.

The hospital was "overwhelmed" with polio patients. His parents were told to take him home, live in quarantine and do the best they could. Survivor Jim Smith

Kat caught polio at 14 months old. She was on an iron lung and wore leg braces until she was 5.

Born in Taiwan, May contracted polio when she was barely 1. As May and her husband BOTH struggle with Post-Polio Syndrome differently, she can see clearly how different the late effects of polio can be for others.

When I was seven months old, my Mother and Daddy noticed my runny nose and how much I was falling when I was trying to hold onto furniture and pull myself up. By the time the tests were completed, I couldn’t stand at all.