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 abouts, 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 !

I lived in the Murray Mallee when polio hit me just before Christmas 1946. My mother had a one- month-old baby girl and called on the next-door neighbours to look after her when I came out of hospital. My father (wrongly) blamed himself for letting the flies give it to me when we were out looking for a pine tree to take home for our Christmas tree.

I contracted polio in 1947, aged 2 ½ years. I lived with my family of 6 in the village of Lorton in the Lake District of England. Apparently, the symptoms presented themselves one Sunday afternoon when we were out walking, and I suddenly fell to the ground without any warning. Attempts to get me to stand failed and after advice from our doctor, I was initially admitted to the hospital in Carlisle and after a few days was subsequently transferred to the infectious diseases’ hospital near Lake Windermere.

I am 73 years of age and still remember like it was yesterday the day my mum and dad took me to The Adelaide Children’s Hospital.

Looking up at the counter, holding on with my left arm, standing on my right leg, telling them I was ok.

Only to be diagnosed later with Polio in my spine, right arm, and left leg. I was 4 and a half years old, yes, I was vaccinated and soon to go to school. The next few months were spent in there and I will always be grateful and thankful for the love and care of my parents and everything the nurses and staff of the Children’s Hospital did for me.

 I am the youngest of six children and I am from the South Sudanese Kuku community. I speak the Kuku language and English. A few weeks after settling in my mother’s village Lomura, I contracted poliomyelitis. One morning in Lomura Village South Sudan, I woke up with a high fever and a body paralysed from neck to toe. I was not able to stand or sit up. My mother gave me a medicine made from local herbs, and she invented her own form of physiotherapy treatment where she massaged my body in cold water every morning.