Campaign for Post Polio Syndrome (PPS)

This campaign strategy involves engaging well-known fashion designers, athletes and sports figures, and Polio Ambassadors to create and wear garments suitable for people of varying mobility, including garments for men and women, that are meant to be inclusive and eye-catching. For example, the 2015 collection by Aleah Leigh, to be modelled not only by Paralympian Anne Wafula-Strike (again) but also by fellow British Polio Ambassadors QVC presenter and author Julia Roberts and fellow Paralympian James Crisp and his wife Katie, were joined by well-known faces from the world of football. The public debut of the full collection was held at half time of a football match.

The June 2016 "Heading for a hat trick" campaign strategically involved the reveal of the designer hats at Royal Ascot Gold Cup Day - "Ladies day" - where the innovation and presentation of millinery products have a vibrant history. Some of the hats featured include England's three lions (three separate lion hats); a Welsh football dragon (England was slated to play Wales in the Euros a few days later); a Scottish RFU thistle; an Irish RFU clover; a Leicester City FC fox; Saracens Rugby Union "star and moon" and Spurs' equally famous cockerel; and a wasp for Wasps RFC. The CEO of the British Polio Fellowship explained: "2016 is a year with a massive sporting focus, with the European football championships, the Olympic and Paralympic Games - not forgetting the momentous rise of underdogs Leicester City FC winning the Premier League recently. We're honouring these sporting achievements with the hats whilst at the same time getting people to spare a thought for those living with PPS." Creativity is the approach here to get people talking about a condition about which many people are uninformed.

The British Polio Fellowship website is one tool for helping to share information about PPS in the form of up-to-date factsheets, publications, contact lists, ideas for travel for people with disabilities, and so on. One section of the site, the British Polio Heritage site, is part of a project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. "We hope that you find the website both an interesting and enlightening insight into an important part of social history. The site provides information about the experiences of people who contracted polio when there was no vaccine to prevent it, the treatment that they had to endure, the impact that the poliovirus had upon their lives, discovery of the vaccine in 1958, the discovery of Post Polio Syndrome, and on some of the activities of the British Polio Fellowship today. The life stories that are told in the interviews have been captured through the eyes and ears of fifty members of The British Polio Fellowship. Listen to their experiences, look at the photo galleries, and see if you recognise friends, relatives, or yourself."

Health, Rights

Founded in 1938 and incorporated in 2005, The British Polio Fellowship is a charity dedicated to helping, supporting and empowering approximately 120,000 people in the UK living with the late effects of Polio and Post Polio Syndrome (PPS), a neurological condition. It seeks to empower and support all people in the UK living with the effects of Polio and PPS by:

• actively campaigning in support of their rights and needs and those of their carers;
• providing information, welfare, and support to enable people affected by Polio and PPS to live full, independent, and integrated lives;
• supporting a regional/branch/group structure that enables mutual support amongst members to be carried out in a caring and inclusive environment; and
• raising the profile of The British Polio Fellowship to enhance its effectiveness and
• developing worldwide alliances with other Polio and PPS groups.

PPS occurs in 80% of people that have had polio; symptoms include a severe reduction in stamina, cold intolerance, and muscle pain. Research conducted by the charity shows that only 7% of the British public have heard of PPS, despite it affecting the same number of people who have Parkinson's disease.