Ade Adepitan suffered 'devastating' childhood illness that stopped legs working

17 November 2023 , 18:30

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Ade is a passionate advocate for disability sports (Image: Getty Images)

Children In Need presenter Ade Adepitan has achieved many extraordinary things in his life, earning a bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games and picking up a number of top presenting jobs for the BBC and beyond.

The 50-year-old retired Paralympian has also thrown himself into disability advocacy work and is involved in various organisations that promote sports opportunities for those with disabilities.

For Ade, who was awarded an MBE in 2012 to mark his contribution to disability sports, this is a cause very close to his heart. After discovering wheelchair basketball at the age of 12, he set about forging a career out of his passion and continues to inspire to this day. His road to success has been anything but smooth, however, and Ade has previously spoken candidly about the 'devastating' childhood illness that changed his life forever.

Ade contracted the illness when he was just 15 months old (Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

He's now urged parents to make sure their children are fully vaccinated (Comic Relief via Getty Images)

Last November, Ade pledged his support to a NHS polio booster vaccination drive in London, which offered children between the ages of one and nine a polio booster vaccination, after vaccine-derived polio virus was found in sewage water. As per the World Health Organisation (WH), polio is a disease that mainly affects children under five, and one in every 200 infections will result in irreversible paralysis.

Ade himself contracted polio when he was just 15 months old, resulting in him permanently losing the use of both legs. Urging parents to make sure they vaccinate their children, Ade said: "Polio can have devastating consequences, which I know all too well. As a small child I contracted polio, I quickly became very unwell, and as a result of the disease taking over my nervous system, I permanently lost the use of my legs. It was life-changing.

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"But polio can be completely prevented through vaccination, which is why it is so important that parents book in to get their children a booster jab at their GP or nearest vaccination site as soon as possible. Getting vaccinated is the best way to protect yourself and your children against the disease. To put it simply, if I had been vaccinated when I was exposed to polio, I would not be in a wheelchair now."

In 2013, Ade traveled to Nigeria, the country of his birth, to shoot a Channel 4 documentary about polio entitled Journey Of My Lifetime. Reflecting on the personal significance of the film at the time, Ade said: "Making this film has changed my life. It was always very personal territory for me. When the polio virus attacked me as a baby in Nigeria, it took away any chance of me being able to walk again."

Two years after the doc was released, it was announced that Nigeria, which up until 2012 accounted for more than half of all polio cases globally, was being removed from the Polio-Endemic list in what was described as a 'historic achievement' by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). Today, the illness is now only endemic in two countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Julia Banim