I fell down the stairs and landed head-first into a bucket
Hi, my name is Andrew Kyprianou, well — part of my name — and this is my polio story
Hi, my name is Andrew Kyprianou, well part of my name having an Irish Catholic Mother and Cypriot Father means adding a few more, Baptize, Confirmation, Father’s name and of course Family name…no Kyprianou is not the family name but that’s another tale to tell, however as a kid I was called Kipper which now days has become Kyp.
So Polio and I or is it Me and Polio??? were first introduced to each other in the London Underground in 1942 or there about, however because of whatever it was not really obvious to my Irish relatives (Dad was off fighting some war or other)until one day when I was two or so and fell down a long stair case and landed head first into a bucket that’s when they thought maybe he should be walking or tottering a bit ! So yep, it was discovered that the right side of my body was not really working as well as a bonny Greek Cypriot Irish Cockney laddie should and got diagnosed with my mate Polio, it was called Infantile paralysis much posher name!
Mainly my right leg was not pulling its weight and slacking off, leaving my left side very tired and fed up. That was the start of a very long relationship with hospitals, moving muscles around, putting irons on boots to be continuously broken and eventually stopping my left leg from growing, which it was not very happy with ! The downside of this is no real education, however Mum undaunted, decided as the “first born” son, I Kipper should become a priest and off I was dispatched to the Salesians abroad in THE NORTH TO A PLACE CALLED MANCHESTER, onto a village called Pott Shrigley. To be ..well first as a priest…..then nah that won’t work ….Hmmm a Brother!! well not really a brother more a Lay Brother, yes that was the answer a Lay Brother…didn’t go down well with Mum and as it was Catholic nothing to do with Dad. So, school in the morning, geography, Italian, bit of maths and book binding and printing because? Well they were going to send me to Italy to become a printer, trouble was I could not read or write ENGLISH! Let alone Italian, well sort of up to age 7’ish... so by the time I got to 14 and had done a few years as a kitchen boy and farm hand. It was decided that my future lay outside of Pott Shrigley into the wide world as I obviously had an Intellectual Disability!
Which was good, because the Seminary was on top of the Pennines and freezing during winter, the rule was no boy was to be allowed to wear long pants until he was 16, so I endured the most terrible frost boils the size of pennies on my leg due to lack of circulation. Which was good because it trained me to bear pain in case I was ever caught by Communists and tortured!
So off at 14 to work, my Dad being Greek Cypriot had a fish shop, and I helped there, but got a great job as a messenger boy for 20th Century Fox in Soho! Another tale to tell, later maybe!
Any how a number of jobs later cause …... after the war plenty of work for youngsters even with disabilities, a new friend asked me to join a drama group as they need men to carry spears and what not, plus there were all these “birds” all wanting to get on the stage!!
Anyhow I moved on to a more serious group soon after as the girls were not keen on an illiterate hop a long and became a founding member of the REACTORS!
I was taken under the wings of Jean an highly respected actress who was a refugee from South Africa, and we were trained 2 to 3 times a week in Stanislavsky Method acting which encouraged me to apply to RADA ..alas the requirements in those days was to cold read a script, to dance including tap, juggle and fence… when I explained that would be difficult because my mate Polio wouldn’t have a bar of it and it had also made friends with Meningitis when I was 6 or 7, leaving me with no real balance and tune deaf to beat and music …ah !!
So, the punch line …. they RADA, informed me that “THEY REALLY WANTED ACTORS THAT CAN LIMP RATHER THAN ONES THAT DO LIMP!” sad eh, I did cover for Bob Hoskins who was snatched up for the Royal…. another time….
So in-between all this I ended up here in Australia married, with a social work degree and specialised in trauma plus other dramatic areas of self-employed work and was for a number of years the State and National President of Disabled Peoples International, a lobby and advocacy group…and the longest serving member of the S.A Parole Board under Ms Nelson over 30 years… another story me thinks …if you want !! might even let you see some photos from my hobby photography !
Many Thanks Kyp for your story and for sharing with us.