Today, a polio vaccine is one of the routine injections given to children and has helped keep the UK free of the infection for many years.

That was not the case in the 1950s and a mum from Rochester who was diagnosed with the debilitating condition as a baby has shared her story to demonstrate the importance of being vaccinated.

Mum-of-three Fiona Taylor is 64. She experiences pain every day and finds it hard to walk.

The cause of her discomfort, which some days reduces her to tears, is polio – a viral infection causing nerve injury which leads to partial or full paralysis.

It is something she has lived with for 63 years, after being taken to the doctor aged just one in 1958.

"I was diagnosed with polio when I was a small baby – my mother found me with a high fever and unable to move," she said.

"I was affected from the neck down and was only able to move my right leg.

"I was put in a mechanical respirator called an iron lung to stimulate my breathing and I required 24-hour care."

With the help of daily physiotherapy, Fiona was taught to use her arms and left leg to the best of her ability.

"I learned to start walking when I was six-years-old with the aid of a support on my left leg called a calliper," she said.

Fiona now works from home after having worked in an office for many years, as she finds it difficult to move around.

She continued: "I find it difficult to breath at times and have pain all the time.

"As the years pass I seem to battle more and more to walk and move around comfortably.

"My back, neck and right hip hurt the most and believe me when I tell you some days I am in tears with pain.

"I need to use a wheelchair when I go out as it is too painful to walk a short distance but at least then I know I am alive."

However, she says she is very lucky as her husband Antony takes care of her, showers her, dresses her and does her hair every day.

Her three children, Donna, 38, Olivia, 33, and Andrew, 31, all also check on her daily.

At the time when Fiona contracted polio, there was an average of 4,000 cases a year in the UK.

Europe and the UK were declared polio-free in 2003 and the last natural case was in 1984.

Charity Action Medical Research was heavily involved in developing polio vaccines in the UK and funded research to test and develop two polio vaccines during the 1950s and 1960s.

While this introduction was too late to benefit Fiona, she is thankful that others can be helped.

She said: "Thank you to Action Medical Research and the development of the polio vaccine, far fewer people are affected by this debilitating condition."