OUR MISSION:
This webpage is to disseminate information about post polio, polio eradication, and support for polio survivors, their families and any interested individuals. We also open our doors and support for anyone with interest in, or experiences similar us, polio survivors.

ORGANIZATION PROFILE:
Polio Epic was founded in 1985.  We still have the original founders within our organization and have grown and evolved over 20 years. We now have this website, a newsletter that goes to over 500 individuals throughout the world, and we have regular meetings that are quite well attended. We offer additional services to our members which include support, guidance, and teaching our Post Polio 101" grant funded class to create awareness within the medical and general community. we are members of Polio Health International, and keep in touch with all medical journals and information. Our organization is run by volunteers who are either survivors of polio, or friends and family members of polio survivors. We have a board of directors that are willing to guide the organization in any direction that the general membership need.

OUR 2008 PRESIDENT

Joanne Yager is one of the founders of Polio Epic, Inc., who, along with a few others, started meeting in November 1985.  Joanne has continued her active role and is again our President for possibly her 6th term, as well as having been President-elect, secretary, and newsletter editor for three years.  Her dedication and hard work has made Polio Epic, Inc. the support group of which we are quite proud.
     Prior to contacting polio, at age 14 in Wheat Ridge, CO, Joanne was very active in the 4-H Club, riding and training quarter horses.  It was in August 1951 when she became paralyzed from her neck down, unable to move a finger or a toe.  Eventually her strength started to return and after 91 days in the hospital she was sent home in a wheelchair with braces and crutches and expected to live a “normal life” once more.  
     The following February she struggled to go back to her school, a three story building with no elevators.  Many friends volunteered to carry her books from class to class.  The following fall, in her junior year, she no longer used her braces or crutches but still favored a weak right ankle and had a slight limp.  Joanne managed to remain on the honor roll all through high school and graduated in 1954.  By then she had met the love of her life, Norm, who was in the Army at the time.  She made the decision to go to a business college and get a job so they could be married the following spring.  Joanne and Norman were married in May of 1955 and of course she continued her “type A personality” lifestyle, had two boys Dan and Randy and after which Joanne and Norman decided they really wanted a girl to round out their family.  They adopted Becky in 1966.
     Joanne was very busy raising her family, being involved in many school and church activities, and in the spring of 1980, they moved to Tucson where Norman continued with IBM as a purchasing agent.  In January of 1981, she and her husband were in a serious car accident.  The word polio surfaced once more for the first time in 30 years.  After her recovery from that accident, it was suggested that she start wearing a short brace on one leg (the beginning of the “second phase” of polio).  In 1985 Joanne began to experience intense symptoms of fatigue, muscle and joint pain and weakness, which resulted in having to wear a short leg brace on the other leg and using a cane.
     About that time the media and a few medical experts started mentioning something called “post-polio syndrome,” and here in Tucson a group of polio survivors gathered to organize the support group which soon became named POLIO EPIC.
      Tragedy struck the family again in 1994, when Norman passed away, 10 months after being diagnosed with a malignant fast growing brain tumor.
     Another important facet about Joanne is that she is an accomplished artist who was part owner and manager of an art gallery in Colorado from 1970 to 1980 and has displayed and sold many of her beautiful works of art through Tucson galleries.

Elections, Projections
and Subjections
at June Meeting

Don't Miss It!

Post Polio 101: 
What YOU Need To Know
A comprehensive list of how you know you have had polio, PPS and its symptoms, what can be done, etc.
More in Oct/Nov issue of Polio Epic, Inc. Newsletter, Page 7...

Summer Vacation
for July and August --
NO MEETINGS

New Members
Rev. Jean Trench of
Sagamore Beach, MA

New Book Hosted in Library
Polio Epic's Library welcomes the new book, POLIO VOICES: An Oral History from the American Polio Epidemics and Worldwide Eradication Efforts, by Julie Silver, MD, and Daniel Wilson, Ph.D. (synopsis in Oct/Nov issue of Polio Epic, Inc., Newsletter, Page 11).

Want more? 
Check out the June/July issue of
Polio Epic Inc. Newsletter