Polio Survivor Swims Lake George (Aired October 19 and 20, 2019)

In 1954 when she was 6 months old, Louise Rourke contracted polio, also known as
infantile paralysis. Initially she lost the power of moving either leg or her left arm,
although her left side eventually recovered with medical help supplied in part by the
National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (the March of Dimes). After several corrective
surgeries, she was able to walk with the aid of a brace on her right leg. By the time she
was a teenager, she could walk without the brace, but age caught up to her in 2007 and
she needed the brace once more. Like some other polio survivors, she found that
swimming was excellent exercise, although her right leg just dangled in the water. Living
on the shore of 32-mile-long Lake George in upstate New York, she learned of women
who had swum the entire length of the lake, so she conceived of a plan to earn money
for polio eradication by swimming the length of Lake George herself. This RadioRotary
program tells how she got through the task and what she accomplished for polio
eradication, which became multiplied by a factor of 3 by the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation.

Learn more:
Polio: https://www.cdc.gov/polio/about/index.htm
End Polio Now: https://www.endpolio.org/
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: https://www.gatesfoundation.org/what-we-do/global-development/polio
Lake George: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_George_(New_York)
Northern Lake George Rotary Club: https://northernlakegeorgerotary.wordpress.com/

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November 4, 2019 · Posted in Global Polio Initiative, PolioPlus