Sixty years ago polio was one of the most feared diseases in the developed world, killing hundreds of children in the UK each year and leaving thousands paralysed. Between 1947 and 1958 polio disabled over 30,000 people in Britain.
Duncan Guthrie’s daughter Janet was diagnosed with polio in 1949, at just 20 months old. Duncan would have known that his little girl faced possible paralysis or even death. Frustrated by the lack of research and treatment centres in the UK he set up the National Fund for Poliomyelitis Research to find a cure for polio. Within ten years, the UK polio vaccine was introduced and it has kept millions of children safe from this deadly virus ever since.
Pioneering work
The charity’s early funding helped support polio research across the UK, from monitoring, diagnosing and preventing infection to improving survivors’ lives. A large share of the funds went to Professor George Dick and his team at Queen’s University in Belfast, to test and develop two polio vaccines for use in the UK: the injectable Salk vaccine, first introduced in 1955, and the oral sugar cube Sabin vaccine, introduced in 1962. They focused on establishing the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines, as well as the right amount to give and the best ways to administer them. They also explored how polio infects humans and how well the vaccines could protect whole populations.
Today, the charity is called Action Medical Research and is committed to tackling the urgent need for more vaccines to prevent life-threatening infections like meningitis.
Janet’s story
Duncan Guthrie’s daughter Janet was diagnosed at just 20 months old. One of the cruellest aspects of her illness and hospitalisation was that for an entire month her parents were not allowed to visit her at all. When visits were eventually allowed, they were limited to once a week.
Speaking at the time, Duncan Guthrie said: “The drooping corners of her mouth and the silent tears on her cheek as the bell and the bustling nurses chivvied visitors from the ward will remain with me forever.”
Janet recovered from her illness and escaped the severely disabling effects of the disease but many thousands weren’t so lucky.
“It was painfully clear that very little was known about polio.. When my own personal turmoil had died down, I realised the greatest contribution to be made would be in helping the medical profession to develop its knowledge about the disease, and in enabling it to improve both prevention and treatment.” Protecting children from polio since 1962
