Disease

Danielle Groenendijk raised more than twice her goal for Parkinson’s Canada. (Photo submitted)

VIU volleyball athlete doubles fundraising goal for Parkinson’s

Daily runs over 30 days by Groenendijk add up to 254 kilometres

 

Danielle Groenendijk and some of her Vancouver Island University teammates back in 2018. (Photo submitted)

Cowichan volleyball star running for Parkinson’s awareness, funding

Cause in honour of her grandfather the focus of athlete’s energy over 30 days

 

Young girls are shown in the Polio girls’ ward at Sick Kids Hospital in a 1937 handout photo in Toronto. The mystery illness that paralyzed and killed mostly children across Canada came in waves that built for nearly four decades before a vaccine introduced in 1955 put an end to the suffering. That was too late for 14-year-old Miki Boleen who contracted polio for a second time in 1953, perplexing doctors who believed “the crippler” could not strike the same patient twice. Boleen, now 80, is hoping for a vaccine for COVID-19 as she reflects on the fear that spread with outbreaks of polio. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Sick Kids Hospital *MANDATORY CREDIT*

Survivors who missed out on polio vaccine hope for breakthrough against COVID-19

An estimated 11,000 people in Canada were left paralyzed by polio between 1949 and 1954