Austin goes fighting fit into polio battle
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WITHIN THE NEXT FEW YEARS thousands of people will have been inside this Austin 7 tormer. For the dark blue giant has dates to keep all over Britain ; in busy town centres and tiny villages, at railway stations, factories, dance halls and sports grounds. It's a 13 feet high by 231 feet long mobile vaccination unit, only one of its kind in the world.
Here you see it outside Fulham Football Club ground, and stepping from it are 3 men familiar to practically every Soccer fan and all who cheer for Fulham.
Adults and apathy The Austin's job ? To encourage anti-polio injections among the up-to-4o's. When lack of response to this campaign had doctors worried, Pfizer, manufacturing chemists of Sandwich, commissioned the mobile unit, fitted it, staffed it with nurse and drivers, and offered it free to all local medical officers. It is booked solid until mid r962 and in the first 5 months 15,000 people were treated in it.
The unit was commissioned in early summer when polio risk is greatest. It was needed urgently. The Folkestone Motor Co. Ltd. built the body and handed the vehicle over completely fitted within 28 days. Thumbs up, from the driver Since late June the vehicle has covered thousands of miles, and never been off the road. One week perhaps in Bradford, the next detouring to avoid low bridges in remote Welsh valleys.
• Driving it from the start has been John Weatherley, zo years on London buses. He says, "Both my co-driver and myself say what a beautiful thing this 7 tonner is to drive. For comfort it's equivalent to sitting in a car. It rides very well and we've had no trouble whatsoever with it. From a driver's point of view it's a really wonderful job".