Hilary Jennifer PoleMBE (1938-1975) was an English writer and campaigner who had myasthenia gravis and was an early user of a POSSUM communication device.[1] She was said to be "the most seriously handicapped person alive",[2] as for many years her movement was limited to 2mm movement in her left big toe.[3]
Pole was born in Yorkshire to Eric and Mona Pole, and had a younger brother and sister. She grew up in the West Midlands and attended King Edward VI Handsworth School and King Edward VI High School for Girls, where she played sports enthusiastically and passed A levels in botany, zoology and art. She studied at I.M. Marsh College of Physical Education, and enjoyed her first teaching placement in a school. But in the last term of her course she began to be unwell, tiring easily, which was initially attributed to stress. Eventually she was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, which damages the nerve system. Within a few years she had lost her sight, could not speak or breathe unaided, and could only move one toe to the extent of 2mm.[3] She required injections every few hours to preserve that level of movement.[4] She spent ten years in hospital, but returned to a specially-adapted flat in her parents' home in 1970, with 24-hour care from a rota of nurses and volunteers. While in hospital she communicated by ringing a bell with her toe, and counting out letters by the number of rings: with this technique she wrote poetry, and replied to letters, as well as requesting care.[4] She later used a POSSUM (Patient Operated Selector Mechanism) and for the first time for many years could communicate independently: she wrote to her old school saying "I can have speedier, more lucid conversations; write my poems and letters in private; to quote one of my friends, I can now be risqué without the whole hospital knowing!"[3] She became editor of The Responaut, and worked to raise funds to provide POSSUMs for others who needed them.[4]
She was appointed MBE in the 1973 Birthday Honours "for services to disabled people".[5]
In 1972, Dorothy Clarke Wilson published Hilary: the Brave World of Hilary Pole (Hodder & Stoughton ISBN 978-0-340-16435-8)
Pole died on 18 June 1975, at her home in Walsall.[6]
^Glynn, Joyce (Autumn 1975). "Tribute to Hilary". The Responaut. 12 (4): 4. Retrieved 1 May 2023. Glynn, Joyce (Winter 1975). "Tribute to Hilary (reprinted from Responaut)" (PDF). Cheshire Smile. 21 (4). Leonard Cheshire Homes. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
^"Hilary goes home - with Possum" (PDF). Cheshire Smile. 16 (4). Leonard Cheshire Homes: 26–27. Winter 1970. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
^ abc"Hilary Jennifer Pole MBE (1956)". oldeds.kehs.org.uk. King Edward VI High School for Girls. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
^ abc"Viewpoint" (PDF). Cheshire Smile. 19 (1). Leonard Cheshire Homes: 5. Spring 1973. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
^"No. 45984". The London Gazette (Supplement). 22 May 1973. p. 6488.
^Lewis, Hazel (19 June 1975). "Jennifer Pole dies at 37". The Birmingham Post. Retrieved 1 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive. one of the most seriously handicapped people in Britain
Hilary Jennifer Pole MBE (1938-1975) was an English writer and campaigner who had myasthenia gravis and was an early user of a POSSUM communication device...
Hillary Clinton HMS HilaryHilary: the brave world of HilaryPole, 1972 book by Dorothy Clarke Wilson List of storms named Hilary, the name of several...
only book set in Maine; reissued for fifth time in 1999) Hilary: The Brave World of HilaryPole (1972) Bright Eyes: The Story of Susette La Flesche, an...
power pole and electric lines in the city. Locally heavy rainfall spread across much of the western United States from the remnants of Hilary. Arizona...
vibrant, interactive, inventive community long before the internet. HilaryPole became its editor after she moved home in 1970 after 10 years of living...
he reached the South Pole overland in 1958. He subsequently reached the North Pole, making him the first person to reach both poles and summit Everest....
Counter-Reformation. Pole was born at Stourton Castle, Staffordshire, on 12 March 1500, the third son of Sir Richard Pole and Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of...
Thousand Planets, Livingston was a body double for Rihanna performing Bubble's pole dance scene. She was also a body double for Emma Stone's aerial work in La...
Hilary Koprowski (5 December 1916 – 11 April 2013) was a Polish virologist and immunologist active in the United States who demonstrated the world's first...
(1991). His other Olivier-nominated roles were in The Conquest of the South Pole (1988), La Bête (1992), and Cabaret (1994). Cumming won the Tony Award for...
incumbents from new competitors, such as "local rules governing utility-pole access that restrain additional fiber and small cell broadband deployment...
Lewis appears as Nurse Horgan. Art Metrano, Marguerite Ray, Pat Priest and Hilary Thompson make guest appearances. Note: Filmed September 5, 1969 176 6 "Naming...
Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.) (key) (Bold – Pole...
was a Polish athlete. He competed in the men's pole vault at the 1960 Summer Olympics. [1] Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill;...
the 16th and 17th centuries Józef Turowski, World War II OUN massacres of Poles Adam Ulam, Polish-American historian of Russia and the Soviet Union Adam...
Booth. In 2016, Swit appeared in Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks at Totem Pole Playhouse in Fayetteville, Pennsylvania. In 2017, Swit appeared in Six Dance...
is the father of pole vaulter Angelica Moser, his older daughter Jasmine Moser was also a pole vaulter in her youth. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans...