Sydney All-Stations Challenge for polio takes pair to every station in one day
Rotary members are taking on the Sydney All-Stations Challenge on Friday for the eighth year. (ABC Radio Sydney: Declan Bowring)
In short:
The All-Stations Challenge is a fundraiser to contribute to the global fund to eradicate polio.
Once a global disease, polio is now endemic in just two countries.
What's next?
Members of Rotary will ride Sydney trains to every single station on Friday.
Looking at photos of his father as a child, Mark Anderson always wondered why his old man wore calipers attached to his legs.
Mr Anderson also remembers many of his classmates at school in the 1960s who had similar calipers.
"My dad had polio as a child," he said.
"He didn't say anything about it.
"It was one of those things that we don't want to talk about. We just don't want to talk about it."
The journey includes heavy rail and metro trains. (ABC Radio Sydney: Declan Bowring)
Poliomyelitis, better known as polio, is a highly contagious disease mostly causing influenza-like symptoms, but in some cases it invades the nervous system and causes paralysis in the spinal and respiratory systems.
It largely effects children under five years of age, causing permanent paralysis in about one in 200 infections.
In Australia, polio is a disease of the past, having been declared eradicated in 2000.
The last case of wild polio in the country was in 1972.
The challenge was developed by Mark Anderson (centre) and his son David (right). (ABC Radio Sydney: Declan Bowring)
However, the disease is still endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and recent outbreaks were detected in Papua New Guinea this year.
To help fundraise for the effort to eradicate polio from the world, Mr Anderson has been taking a unique approach for the past seven years on Sydney's train network.
On Friday, for World Polio Day, the Rotary Foundation employee and a dozen members from Rotary will ride to every one of Sydney's metro and heavy rail stations.
Father and son project
The idea to ride to every station in one day came from Mr Anderson's son David, a self-confessed rail enthusiast who also works with Sydney Trains.
Eight years ago David Anderson proposed bringing an All-Stations Challenge to Sydney.
"He said there's a bloke in England who's managed to get around all London Underground stations in one day and he said, 'I don't think anyone done an all-stations challenge in Sydney'," Mark Anderson said.
"I went back and said, 'Okay, if we're going to do it let's make a fundraiser out of it'."
A dozen members will ride the whole challenge, while more than 100 will join during the day. (ABC Radio Sydney: Declan Bowring)
David Anderson is the master planner. His knowledge of Sydney's complex rail system and its many timetables has formulated an 18-hour ride that starts at 4:30am in Cronulla and finishes at the Tallawong metro terminus at 10:30pm.
Sydney commuters will be familiar with trains being late, and the challenge is usually affected too, but David Anderson often has a good back-up plan to continue the all-stations challenge.
"There might be a year or two where we miss Olympic Park, but we get there," Mark Anderson said.
"We had one year where we got to Riverstone and there was a breakdown and we just couldn't get to Richmond at the end of the line. So you have to run that off.
"Last year, you wouldn't believe it, but the trains ran perfectly on time all the way.
"Because of the [replacement] buses between Bankstown and Sydney, that slowed us down, but we still took the bus to get to every station."
The idea had immediate success, raising $170,000 in the first year.
It has continued a strong average, gathering on average $100,000 in donations each year.
The trip begins in Cronulla at 4:30am and finishes at Tallawong about 10:30pm. (ABC Radio Sydney: Declan Bowring)
Generational difference
Wearing bright red T-shirts that say "end polio now", Mark Anderson said he saw a generational divide in the reactions he got from people who asked him what they were doing on the trains during the challenge.
"The biggest reaction is, 'I didn't know polio still existed',"Mark Anderson said.
"But if you're talking to older Australians who grew up with polio, they are the ones that are most supportive of the cause because they know what it meant in their lives.
"Most young people today have got no idea."
He said they did not approach members of the public during the ride, but would speak with people if they were asked.
The money raised during the challenge will go to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative via Rotary International, which is the largest non-government contributor to the fund.