The following messages of support have so far been received for our intrepid band of Campaign Heroes (the earliest messages are at the bottom, and the most recent are at the top). To add your own message of support, please click here. Finally, if you haven’t yet added your name to Polio Australia’s Petition, or shared it with your friends and family, doing so is only a click away! Thousands more signatures are still needed.

To the Polio Australia Team: I fully support the sufferers of polio in their efforts to highlight the lack of support they receive in trying to cope with their disabilities. Many of the "polio era" are now reaching their elder years. This presents two major problems. Not only are they trying to cope with the natural aging process but the degenerative effect of their earlier polio infection is now becoming apparent. Their lifestyle is now manifestly inferior to their peers. These people deserve a special effort from us to help them. In most cases they have coped with their disability during their life but now at a tender age, their burden is nearly too great to bear. Please raise the awareness of this problem.
To Margaret Maroney: Dear Mum, We have all been aware of the effects polio has on your body and yet you never complain. Your fighting spirit is to be admired and for that we are all lucky and grateful you survived such a horrible thing so you could be our wonderful mother.
To Jill Pickering: Go Jill!!! Love the pictures of the horse and what looks like a motor bike although I can see that it is a motorised scooter. You also look like you are having lots of fun as well. Hope all goes well in Canberra and sorry I can't be there with you all.
To Jill Pickering: From your photo you should be off to the Grand Prix Motor Bike races on Phillip Island. That vehicle does not look like the normal electric scooter!! We wish all of you every success in convincing the Federal Government that there are many people needing extra help.
To the Polio Australia Team and all Campaign Heroes: I really hope all goes well in Canberra on the 31st. I was born in September 1949 in Kent, England. I was only three weeks old when I got polio. I have lived in Perth WA for 31 years. Late effects of polio has really taking its toll on me. My muscles are very weak now, I live with pain every day and have to use a roller walker. Good luck for the 31st. I will be thinking of you on this day.
To the Polio Australia Team and all Campaign Heroes: Congratulations to all who will be in Canberra on the 31st! As a survivor of polio since the age of 18 months and now suffering the late effects of polio - my spirit, heart and soul will be with you as you support all of us in the same situation. I have always believed that "together we can all make a difference in this world!".
To the Polio Australia Team, Margaret Maroney and all other Campaign Heroes: Good luck to all Polio Survivors and Campaigners, especially my mum, Margaret Maroney, on the 31st and hoping the Federal Government listens to Polio Australia.
To the Polio Australia Team and all Campaign Heroes: I am inspired by what is happening in Australia. What an example to us in NZ to follow. I wish only the best success for you all. Be strong.
To all Campaign Heroes: Walk for me too please. I had polio in 1956 in Western Australia. Thank you for being the voices for those of us who cannot attend.
To the Polio Australia Team and all Campaign Heroes: Go for it, all the best. I am a polio survivor, 1950, Wellington NSW.
To the Polio Australia Team and all Campaign Heroes: Many thanks for representing polios in Canberra. I very much appreciate the time, effort and energy you will all expend on this. I was at the Victorian Polio Forum in March as an observer. The big message I took away from that Forum was the time taken to get a diagnosis of LEOP and/or PPS. The average was 6 years, mine took 9 years. As the sole parent of 3 children and with no family help in Australia, I continued to work full time to support us. When I asked my doctor if he thought I could get the disability pension (becoming desperate) he replied that if I had a leg shot off I might have a chance. He never considered polio to be the problem, he only diagnosed osteoarthritis. He came from the generation of polios and, somehow, that made it worse. Just recently, I had to see a local doctor (not my usual one) and he told me there was "no polio in Australia". I asked "then why do you think I'm in this wheelchair?". He didn't answer me and wouldn't listen when I tried to tell him about LEOP and PPS. Again, thank you all for getting the message to Canberra. Those of us who can't get there are right behind you.
To the Polio Australia Team, Margaret Maroney and all other Campaign Heroes: Thinking of you all in this new stage of your lives, especially my wonderful sister, Margaret Maroney.
To the Polio Australia Team and all Campaign Heroes: I wish I could be there with you all. Money does not permit me to be with you.
To Gillian Thomas and the Polio Australia Team: All the best for the campaign in Canberra, we'll be cheering form the sidelines.
To Margaret Maroney: Marg, you are a rock. We admire your strength and courage you showed as a child dealing with Polio and putting up with all that pain and frustration of the caliper, but even more so dealing with all the hardships thrown at you as an adult. You have bounced back each time stronger than before. Good luck on the 31st October. Your admiring Sister.
To the Polio Australia Team and all Campaign Heroes: To all the wonderful people, especially my sister, Margaret Maroney, who have lived with the pain and the obstacles that went with contracting childhood polio. I wish you well in your quest for support and funding to assist with the terrible symptoms of post polio syndrome and the ongoing struggle that a lot of you face as you enter the later years of your lives.
To Margaret Maroney and all other Campaign Heroes: Hat off to all of the people who survived polio many years ago and who now may be fighting its ongoing efects with age. You are to be truly admired for your strong will to live life. No doubt in part to your positive outlook, you're still here. Congratulations and admiration.
To Margaret Bennie: Hello! All the best with your campaign.
To the Polio Australia Team and all Campaign Heroes: We're Still Here!
To Lorraine Parker: Great story, my family backs you 100%. You have overcome such hardship and are a great example to those who give up. Keep going and I hope you are very successful with achieving your goals with this campaign.
To the Polio Australia Team, Margaret Bennie and all other Campaign Heroes: Good luck with your trip to Canberra. I know this will be physically exhausting for all post polio survivors but it is very important for the recognition of your ongoing support needs.
To Margaret Maroney: Wishing you all the best of luck in your campaign and very proud of my awesome Aunty, Margaret Maroney, who works so hard to help others at their vulnerable time, when support is so important.
To Lorraine Parker: Go Mum!! Spread the word and let them know that it's important xxx
To the Polio Australia Team, Jill Pickering and all other Campaign Heroes: I wish you well in your mission to Canberra. We desperately need more medical professionals to diagnose and treat post polio problems. It is so difficult to get an initial appointment many simply give up! Of course their symptoms continue to get worse so eventually they have to seek help elsewhere. Often the advice received is not suitable for polio affected people. Many suffer depression along the way which also needs addressing.
To Ron Blackwell: Dad, I'm very proud of you for sharing your story. You're an inspiration to us all. I hope your's and other polio survivors' campaign is a very successful one.
To Jill Pickering: Congratuations - I only wish I could be there to support you. As a Polio survivor, now suffering the effects of PPS I certainly understand the dilemma we all have. I have been very active all my life, as a teacher and pushing myself to fulfil all the duties required but now I'm having to rely on a wheelchair and the wonderful support of my husband. You have my full support and hope to meet you one day.
To Jill Pickering and the Polio Australia Team: Thank you for supporting our cause and taking the time to go to Canberra, I do wish I could be there but work commitments are preventing me on this occasion. I became a polio survivor in 1960 in Doveton Victoria, for most of my life I don't believe any doctor I have ever seen has had much knowledge of the effects of polio and the effects that it continues to create. The need for understanding our post polio problems and needs is long overdue. Here in Tamworth, where I now live, just getting in to see a doctor is almost a miracle let alone find one that truly understands the late effects of polio. Suprisingly, some are so young, they are not even sure what polio is. They offer you anti depressants or tell you to "take it easy and rest", they have no idea that it is just not that easy and they don't want to hear what you have to say as they have no other answers and no cures - life still has to go on regardless of the pain and feeling tired and that's just for starters. Well, Thank You all again, let's hope the message is loud and clear, we have waited long enough.
To Jill Pickering: Go Goil !!!
To Ella Gaffney: Mum, I'm proud of what you have achieved - you have 2 great children (especially your daughter!) and an amazing granddaughter! You have never let your skinny leg get in the way of what you wanted to do. One of the most proudest things is when we went skydiving together. Not many people can say that's something they did with their mother! I know that there is a long road ahead for all survivors and I hope that this campaign gets heard the way it needs to be!
To Jill Pickering: On behalf of all Post Polio Survivors including myself, I'd like to express my sincere thanks for taking the petition to Canberra as well as to your local MP. I wish you a safe and successful trip, one that results in support for us. Thanks again.
To Jill Pickering: I don't know whether other members could not get to see their local MP's, but I've been trying for 3 months!