The early days of IMPACT: Sir John Wilson CBE, DL

The PNR Society, our local partner in Bhavnagar District, India has just celebrated six years in which there have been no reported polio cases in their project areas.

In the late 1980s, when IMPACT first visited the region, the situation was quite different. The disease disabled hundreds of children each year in India. In the absence of mass vaccination, few were completely safe from its threat.

We have just been looking back at some early photos and found this one of our late founder, Sir John Wilson CBE, DL campaigning to promote immunisation and wipe out polio in India.

Sir John was blinded at the age of 11 during a school chemistry accident. He went on to become one of the 20th century's leading disability campaigners and is credited for instigating the saving of sight in some 50 million people in developing countries. He also founded Sightsavers International.

www.impact.org.uk