In their 2025 “WE’RE STILL HERE!” campaign, Post-Polio Health International asked survivors “to shine a light on the resilience, contributions, and ongoing lives of polio survivors”.

Jim Smith was totally paralyzed from the neck down at age 2. His parents were told “the hospital is full - take him home”. Jim has his own special perspective to life with the effects of this terrible virus.

I am an “inapparent” (often referred to as ‘non-paralytic’) polio survivor with PPS. My post-polio journey was long, painful and truly confusing. There was diagnosis, frightening mis-diagnosis and an enormous amount of self-doubt. Carol Ferguson

Who knew that traveling between each other’s homes would bring two survivors together in such a meaningful way.

The nurses rolled all the stretchers and wheelchairs as close as they could around the small TV. We all went wild when the Beatles sang their number one song, “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” It was a welcome reprieve from our pain and the long recovery we all had to endure.

“I HAD polio and now I’m living with the late effects of that terrible virus. There’s no denying it. “

I could not move anything except one eyelid; even the muscles controlling my eyeballs went limp and my eyes just rolled around aimlessly. I could not breathe, swallow, talk, or move. I was only eight.

His three months in the hospital included an iron lung, a rocking bed and painful physical therapy. He learned how to stay positive in the face of adversity.

Thomas Fetterman caught polio when he was 8. He needed an iron lung. Despite his many challenges he always looks for the positive aspects of his experiences.

My parents decided to volunteer our entire family (themselves included), feeling strongly that it was the right thing to do.

Marny Eulberg may have retired, but she is far from finished with her volunteer and humanitarian efforts. She is proving day by day, that anything is possible, no matter what physical limitations you may have.

His parents would have given anything for their son to have had a vaccine to prevent polio.

I’m remembering my mother; a beautiful, delicate unassuming person who brought me through my initial bout with Polio and the resulting rehabilitation and surgeries. Mothers of Polio survivors are unsung heroes.