For a few incredible eradicators, a life’s purpose doesn’t stop at retirement.

Meet some oof our most beloved polio fighters as they look back on their careers and try to capture their unusual motivation to continue their quest, as long as it takes:

Article and interviews by ©Anne Matthews Public Image Director d9560 Passport Club

Susanne Rea OAM is a polio survivor and founder of World’s Greatest Meal to help End Polio.

Susanne from the Rotary Club of Cairns Sunrise, suffered polio as a child. She joined Rotary in 1994, and in 2014 she co-founded World’s Greatest Meal to help End Polio (WGM). The aim of WGM Is to raise awareness and funds to help Rotary’s End Polio campaign.

To access funds to allow her to travel, Susanne reverse-mortgaged her house and embarked on a world tour, speaking, vaccinating, and motivating across 32 countries. She pays her own expenses and local clubs host her wherever possible. Susanne’s partner Nauman Abbasi looks after all the reporting and finances. Nauman was recently recognised for his tireless work with the Rotary International Service Award for a Polio Free World. To date, WGM has raised US$12.4 million (this amount includes the Bill & Melinda Gates contribution).

Susanne said ‘I would urge Rotarians to continue to advocate, raise awareness, immunise, and fundraise until we can truly say we are successful, and children everywhere do not have this polio virus waiting to strike the unsuspecting poor, malnourished, migrant, unvaccinated child to maim, or even kill’.

William (Bill) Peacock OAM is a polio survivor and the Australian and Oceania coordinator of World’s Greatest Meal to help End Polio.

In August 1950, aged four years and 8 months, Bill contracted polio. At this time his family was living in Tocumwal, NSW near the Airforce base. Fortunately, the Airforce flew him to Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital in Melbourne where he spent several months in an iron lung. Bill says if it hadn’t been for the Airforce he would not have survived. In early 1951, paralysed from the neck down, he was transferred to Frankston Orthopaedic Hospital where he remained until December 1957. During these seven years, with much effort and determination, he learnt to walk with the aid of callipers and commenced his education with The Victorian Correspondence School.

Bill went on to have an amazing life. He owned several hairdressing salons in Melbourne and one in Sydney, he was a hair and makeup artist for the BBC, Universal Studios, the ABC, and Channels 7, 9 and 10. He was a judge on the Miss Australia Quest, wrote training manuals for the hair and beauty industry, and the makeup industry, opened Australia’s first private nationally recognised vocational training school, co-owned restaurants, was a teacher/trainer, a marriage celebrant and is a disability advocate.

In 1981, aged 36, Bill had a post-polio episode and was admitted to Nambour Hospital. At the time he was working as a judge on the Miss Australia Quest and friends looked after his post-operative accommodation and introduced him to their friend, Rotarian Sir Clem Renouf.

Sir Clem, who had been President of Rotary International in 1978-79, was interested in the late effects of polio and what had happened to Bill during his post-polio episode. Bill said Sir Clem and he ‘had many a meal together and had lots of discussions in particular about polio and the physical and financial support given to me (Bill) by Rotary through the Crippled Children's Association’.

Sir Clem met Bill’s parents and enjoyed numerous chats with them. Bill’s mother had polio when she was 16 and Sir Clem was interested in her accounts of isolation, iron lungs and the experiences of the effect polio had on families during the 1930's and 1950's, prior to the invention of the polio vaccines.

In 1997, Bill’s body collapsed and he had to move to life in a wheelchair. In 2016, Bill was in a bus accident, the footage of which was shown on ‘A Current Affair’. Bill suffered serious injuries and spent months recovering. As a result his mobility has been further limited. True to his caring character and concern for the welfare of others, he allowed the footage to be used to highlight the need for wheelchairs to be restrained on public transport.

Despite all he has endured on his life’s journey, Bill has continued to work tirelessly for our local community, for Rotary and Spinal Life Australia. He is a Peer Support Advocate for Spinal Life Australia; a Disability Consultant and Advocate; and Coordinator for Australia and Oceanic Rotary’s World’s Greatest Meal. Bill is also the Polio Chair for District 9650 and the Foundation Director for Rotary d9560 Passport Club.

John Nanni is a polio survivor who is the USA Coordinator for World’s Greatest Meal to help End Polio. He is also a Board member of the polio Survivors Action Group, PolioPlus Chair for District 7630 and a member of the Polio Eradication Advocacy Task Force for the United States Congress.

John’s journey with polio began in 1953, just 6 months before Jonas Salk’s vaccine was widely tested. He was only 10 months old when he came down with polio and was paralysed from the neck-down for 6 months. John said his mother used physical therapy on his legs and did such a great job that he walked a year later. He actually played baseball, basketball and football in high school; however, his coaches didn’t know he was a polio survivor and thought he was very clumsy and slow. The coaches always yelled at him and often called him lazy. It was a very frustrating time in John’s life.

John considers himself lucky and feels blessed because he was too young to remember having polio. His mother told tell him how he screamed in pain when she stretched his muscles while he was paralysed.

When John turned 40, he started to experience renewed muscle weakness, joint pain and extreme fatigue. Eventually, after seeing 10 different doctors in 2 years – many of them never having seen a polio survivor – he was diagnosed with Post-Polio Syndrome (PPS). John said that many never get a diagnosis of PPS and suffer without knowing why.

By the age of 58, John was confined to a wheelchair. He said the old adage of ‘use it or lose it’ had to be replaced by ‘conserve to preserve’. To avoid overuse and further damage to his muscles, he now restricts his steps to a couple of hundred a day. On many days each step is very painful; however, he has learnt that there is very little he can’t do – he just has to find a different way of doing it.

And, he says he is lucky to live in a world where there are organisations like Rotary International and Rotarians who care about the welfare of others and who put Service Above Self.

John’s message is: ‘for every child we save from polio, we truly are saving them from a life of pain and suffering. Please continue the fight to eradicate polio’.

Cheryl Leukefeld is not a polio survivor but a warrior who works tirelessly for the End Polio campaign. She is the Canadian coordinator for World’s Greatest Meal to help End Polio.

Cheryl said like John Nanni, Bill Peacock and Susanne Rea, she is passionate about ending Polio for the children of the world. Cheryl grew up in an upper-class family in West Point Grey in Vancouver BC Canada. She had 2 brothers and 2 sisters and an adopted brother. She had never heard of Polio until she was an adult and she learnt about the disease through her own reading.

During her formative years, Cheryl said she was coddled, pampered and spoiled. Her first exposure to a polio survivor was at a conference in Victoria, Canada where one of the guest speakers was Joan Toone, who suffered Post Polio Syndrome (PPS). Joan’s speech brought Cheryl to tears and changed her life. Ever since hearing that speech, ending Polio and working for Rotary have been Cheryl’s passion.

In 2014-2015, when Cheryl was President of the Rotary Club of Ladysmith, she invited Susanne Rea to come to Canada and stay with her on Vancouver Island. Together, they did a tour to increase awareness of Polio and raised $180,000. Cheryl went on to become Assistant Governor of her District and remained in that position for the next three and a half years. In 2017, she invited Susanne to be guest speaker at her District 5020 conference.

Susanne and Cheryl have remained good friends with Cheryl taking on the role of Polio guest speaker and WGM Ambassador at local Rotary, Interact and Rotaract clubs.

A second Polio tour to Vancouver Island and Washington State in the USA raised $150,000; however, now each Canadian club does their own fundraising and Cheryl reports to WGM. Cheryl said ‘we all fight to end Polio because it is always about the little children’.

Cheryl, who was a fashion consultant and model, produced, directed and was commentator at fashion shows. This background has enabled her to become a spokesperson for television promotions of Rotary programs such as the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards.