Peter Robinson

13th October 2026

I was born 1950 in Birmingham. All things went along reasonably well living in that time, until I reached the age of four when I caught double pneumonia. I was weak and poorly for almost a year and it was touch and go for me, most people thought I would die. Yet, against the odds I pulled through.

I do not know if this had anything to do with me catching Polio. Maybe my immune system was weak? But at the age of five, one night I began to feel unwell, with a sore throat. My Mom sent me to bed but, in the night I got worse. Dad went down to the phone box to phone our G.P. who came right away. When he saw me, he was not sure what was wrong with me. To be safe, he went and phoned for an ambulance, and I was taken to the Children’s Hospital, Birmingham. Where my parents were told, a few days late that I had ‘Polio’!  

Then started a long road of treatment, I was in hospital for about two years. I was kept in isolation for some months, were my family could only see me through the window. I do not remember much about that time in hospital but for the amount of injections I had (sometimes two a day). I did not know what they were for but, one thing I do remember nobody told me much about my treatment.

After leaving hospital, I knew that the Polio had affected my right side but, mainly my right leg, which was by the age of ten over two inches shorter and my leg was thin and my foot short and I was unable to move it very much. As I grew up, I was given treatment in which my right leg was put in water and an electric current was passed through the water and through my leg. I do not know if it was of any use?      

At the age of ten I was put under a new orthopaedic surgeon by the name of Mr Scrace. He used to be a house builder until he decided to have a change and studied to be a surgeon. He was a very nice person, and he carried out three operations on me at the Woodlands Orthopaedic Hospital ((now The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital)in Northfield, Birmingham.

The first operation was in 1961, when I was eleven and it was on my right knee, to try and increase the blood flow down my leg. I was in hospital for about four weeks.

The second was in 1962, when I was twelve, on my ankle, I cannot remember what it was for; I was in for about five weeks.

The third operation in 1963 was something special. As my right leg was just over two inches shorter than my left leg, he wanted to lengthen my right leg about two inches, leaving my right leg about half inch shorter. That was not something unusual, for many people had had their legs lengthened by traction, which meant having heavy weights attached to the leg and stretched. This would take many months in hospital.

Mr Scrace had thought of a new way of doing this operation. He devised a rack that would stretch the leg to the length needed and also cut the stay in hospital. This was history in the making!   

So, at the age of thirteen my parents were asked if I would be willing to act as a ‘Guinea Pig’ to test his new operation! (I was one of about six to have this operation back then). We said, “Yes”.

I went into hospital in about May 1963 for the operation. It meant having my right leg broken in the middle and having four ‘pins’ put in, two above the break and two below the break. These pins were attached to the rack with screws on each side and I turned the screws each day, and they pushed down the bottom pins (with part of the leg) until the leg was the right length! This was painful to start with, and I was given painkillers to help me. But, after about a week I was able to turn the screws myself. This took some days, and the theory was that the bone would grow down to meet the other part of the leg. One surgeon said about it in 2015: “A rather adventurous manner!” I came out of hospital on my fourteenth birthday, and I was given the four pins which I still have.

All this was new and there was no guarantee it would work or that the leg would grow straight. I am very happy to say that my operation was 100% successful. I still had to go to the out-patient department of the hospital in Broad Street, Birmingham, until I was eighteen. Wherein I was discharged from hospital and told: “If you need any help, come back”. So, I was left to face life without any help from anybody. Since then I have lived my life the best I could.

After leaving school, I got a job at Cadbury’s and was on the youth committee, run by Mr Thornton, he was blind but very able in all he did. He also introduced the ‘White Cane’ in England that blind people use today. After leaving Cadbury’s I had different jobs until 1994 when I went self-employed and still am today.       

But now I have Post Polio, and I am finding it more difficult each day with all the problems it brings. Today, I have to walk with a walking-stick and sometimes even a three wheeled walker.