Rachel and Alice talk to Professor John Bell, Regius professor of Medicine at Oxford University. His first memory, he says, was looking up and seeing “a load of guys with white coats around me”. He’d contracted polio and his father, had also caught the disease and was critically ill in the same hospital.

 “People forget about polio,” he says, but Professor Bell never did, always concerned that another disease may sweep across the world.

Now, more than 70 years later, he is known for helping secure a covid vaccine and advising the government on how to lead Britain out of the pandemic. His research teams are also on the brink of major breakthroughs in the fight against cancer.

Links for additional support (also on Past Imperfect podcast pages)

Polio information and support

Polio - Eradication, Vaccination, & Access | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Polio Survivors Network – Lives lived with healthcare lessons for the future

Cancer Support

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/

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