Brave Hearts

Author(s): Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: Eye Care Foundation

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Who Ran The Fastest
leg was severely affected and was paralysed. She was unable to put her foot on the floor. Such a child needs nourishment, which her poor parents with an army of children to feed, could not afford. She lived on medicines and coarse food. There was deprivation in the family. The doctors had prescribed massaging as a treatment, but the physiotherapy centre was 45 miles away from her home. She used to be taken to the
Wilma Rudolf centre only once a week by her mother. This continued almost for two years. In between, her mother trained three of her other daughters in massaging and they alternately gave Wilma the required treatment, crudely though.
All children of Wilma's age would go out of homes for fun and play every day, but the crippled Wilma had to content herself lying on bed all the time and watch others play through a window of her home. Every moment she wondered if she too would ever be able to enjoy such games. To add to polio, Wilma was struck by double pneumonia and scarlet fever too. This made her not only weak but also dependent.
When Wilma was six-year old, she was given special type of boots to wear. With their help, she started walking a little, initially in the precincts of her home. But after a year she started going out on her own. The first day she went out, her happiness knew no bounds. She continued to make progress bit by bit. At the age of eight, she started walking without
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