Ramesh Ferris (photo - Journal Pioneer)
STEPHEN BRUN
The Journal Pioneer
SUMMERSIDE – Ramesh Ferris is a study in contrasts as a survivor of polio.
As a six-month-old in India, the disease crippled his legs. But he is now nearing the end of a cross-Canada awareness campaign that demonstrates what proper rehabilitation can do for polio survivors.
Ferris is using a hand cycle to travel across Canada to raise awareness for the eradication of polio. He said Canadians have become complacent about vaccinations over time, while some even think the disease no longer exists.
“We’ve had a prevention for over 53 years, yet children continue to die and become paralyzed by the effects of polio,” said Ferris at a recent Summerside Rotary meeting.
“If we choose not to continue the fight against polio, an additional 10 million children will be paralyzed over the next 40 years and we risk losing the $4-billion global investment we’ve put into the eradication efforts.”
Ferris began his Cycle to Walk campaign on April 12 in Vancouver in honour of the date in 1955 when Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine was released.
To date, he has travelled 6,700 kilometres and will end his cycle at Cape Spear, Nfld., on Oct. 1. Ferris plans to eventually raise $1 million, 75 per cent of which will go to Rotary’s Polio Plus program, while 20 per cent will go to polio survivors in poor countries and five per cent will be spent on education about the disease.
“It’s a reminder that there’s still people dying from the effects of this horrible disease that we should’ve eradicated years ago,” he said.
“My drive and my passion toward doing that won’t stop in Newfoundland.”
In India, because his mother didn’t have access to the health care Ferris needed, an Anglican bishop in the Yukon adopted him as a two-year-old in 1982.
He was able to access the braces, crutches and surgeries he needed in Vancouver, and took his first steps with crutches a year later.
“It’s challenging, but I’m an example of what can happen if one doesn’t receive the vaccination, but what can happen if one has access to the proper rehabilitative care.”
Although great strides have been made against polio — it is only endemic in four countries around the world — new cases still crop up because people still don’t get the proper immunizations. This is something Ferris would like to change.
“As long as there’s a single case of polio, no country is polio-free.”
Leave a Reply