RIBI is pleased to learn that Paralympic basketball player, actor and broadcaster, Ade Adepitan, is to feature in a Channel 4 documentary on polio and the impact that the disease has had on his life.
Ade contracted polio in Nigeria at the age of 16 months before his family moved to London. The disease badly affected his legs, but after being introduced to wheelchair basketball by two physiotherapists, Ade went on to become a successful wheelchair basketball player, winning a bronze medal at the 2004 Paralympics in Athens. More recently, Ade presented the London 2012 Paralympics with Clare Balding for Channel 4.
The documentary, Journey of My Lifetime, looks at how Ade came to contract polio and what his life would have been like if his parents had remained in Nigeria instead of bringing him to the UK. Ade said: “There are only three countries in the world left with polio: Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria, so we went to Nigeria to find out why. I’d love to be there on the day Ban Ki-Moon announces that polio has finally been eradicated from the world.”
RIBI President, Nan McCreadie said: "Rotary, along with its partners, has been working tirelessly for many years to eradicate polio and we are now moving towards the final push. It will be very helpful to us in achieving this objective that such a successful sportsman and broadcaster as Ade Adepitan is raising awareness of this terrible disease through a mainstream television documentary."
Journey of My Lifetime is on Channel 4 on Monday August 19.
Photo courtesy of the London Evening Standard
