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I had polio when I was 13. I started feeling stiff, my joints ached, and over a two-week period I lost my coordination and 20 pounds.

Polio's pretty special because once you get an eradication, you no longer have to spend money on it; it's just there as a gift for the rest of time.

When I was paralysed by polio at 13, I went into an isolation hospital and couldn't sit up, so I only took liquid food from spouted cups which the masked nurses would bring in and feed to me. I saw my parents only through glass; we couldn't touch.

I am more connected to the world of the imagination, but you don't have to have polio to do that.

In Jamaica, we eradicated polio many years ago, but there are a lot of kids suffering in Africa still.

We've actually eliminated Type II polio in the world, at least as far as we can tell.

Ninety percent of the cases of polio are in security-vulnerable areas.

I don't think there is any philosophy that suggests having polio is a good thing.

Nigeria and Pakistan are two countries that have had a lot of trouble with polio. And part of the reason is that there's a lot of political unrest, and people really distrust what the government is doing. That has an effect on people's health, and it has an effect on the health of children.

I went to several different grade schools all over the West Coast. I got polio when I was 8 and spent eight months in the hospital and a rehab clinic in Seattle.