Personal Stories

Place of Residence: Wilbraham, MA Katy is a COVID-19 survivor who suffers from long-term impacts of her illness. Prior to COVID-19, she was healthy and living an active lifestyle—enjoying things like work, yoga, and cooking.…

Place of Residence: Richmond, Texas Josh loves sports, spending time with his family, and all things Disney World. He never imagined COVID-19 would affect his life, and because he believed his risk was low, he…

Teresa was a healthy, artistic 10-year-old who loved to read, sew, draw, sing, and dance. She loved being a Junior Girl Scout and was very outgoing. She wasn’t at high risk for COVID-19 and hadn’t…

Married for 54 years, Dwight and Brenda loved spending time with their family, especially their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Because they lived in a small town, they didn’t think COVID-19 was a threat to them and…

Place of Residence: Gainesville, Florida In December 2020, Kristin was a healthy, 31-year-old nurse practitioner who cared for patients at her rural medical clinic. Although she worked in health care, she didn’t think she was…

Place of Residence: Los Angeles, California At 15 years old, Braden was described by his film teacher as “a unique spark of joy in this world.” Others knew him to be a kind soul, a…

Place of Residence: Superior, Colorado Sarah received a COVID-19 vaccine while pregnant, and her daughter tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies at four months old. Sarah wants others to know the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination for…

Place of Residence: Rockville, Maryland Monica describes her 41-year-old daughter, Maria, as a bright light who makes this world a better place. She never imagined that COVID-19 would cause her daughter to be hospitalized for…

Place of Residence: North Bethesda, Maryland At age 41, Maria was living her best life and enjoying an active lifestyle filled with work, friends, travel, and leisure activities. Her world abruptly changed when she was…

Place of Residence: San Francisco, California Jessica’s family was enjoying the winter holidays when her son, Laith, came down with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) . What started as cold-like symptoms quickly escalated into a five-day…

Place of Residence: Brooklyn, New York Hunter was 6 months old when he contracted respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in October of 2022. Initially, his parents struggled to find care until he developed pneumonia and landed…

Place of Residence: Saint Elmo, Illinois Kerry was only a newborn when she contracted respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) at the hospital . Now an adult, Kerry shares her experience with RSV and how her illness…

Sarah was a healthy 4-week-old baby in December 2011 when she contracted respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and was hospitalized. Sarah spent six days in the hospital and thankfully survived. Sarah’s family was familiar with RSV…

Place of Residence: Massapequa Park, New York When Mary Beth was just 7 years old, she lost her grandmother, Mary, to cervical cancer. Back in the 1950s, routine Pap smears weren’t standard practice for women’s…

I was 25 years old, living my dream of being a successful television producer in Washington, D.C., when I was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Even though my cervical cancer was found through screening and was…

Who is SupermanHPV? My name is Jason Mendelsohn, and I’m 49 years old. I’ve been happily married for over 22 years to my wife, Ronni, and we have three awesome kids: twin boy and a…

At the age of 31, Heather Burcham found herself dying of cervical cancer, caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). At age 26 she had been misdiagnosed and by the time she was diagnosed with cancer…

Place of Residence: Fort Myers, Florida As an older adult, Suzanne shares her story of surviving measles as a child before vaccines were available and describes the life-long complications she’s e ndur ed as a…

Maggie’s story, as told by her father and board-certified pediatrician Dr. Tim Jacks. The following is a copy of Dr. Jacks’ message written on CaringBridge. He wrote this in 2015 when his young child Maggie…

Place of Residence: Chicago, Illinois Joshua was 30 years old and living in Chicago when he developed a high fever and a rash. His doctors prescribed antibiotics, but he just got sicker.

Place of Residence: Cambridge, Massachusetts Grace’s mother, Tara, shares the story of how her 2-year-old daughter was left fighting for her life with bacterial meningitis. She wants others to know how vaccination helps keep her…

Place of Residence: Melbourne, Victoria , Australia Kaya was a healthy baby until she caught meningitis in April 2015, leading her to spend nine days in the hospital. Kaya was fortunate to survive, leaving her…

Place of Residence: Cheshire, Connecticut At 17 years old, Francesca was a healthy, active athlete with exciting plans for college. That all changed quickly when she contracted bacterial meningitis. She was hospitalized for three weeks,…

There’s a saying that “what you don’t know won’t hurt you.” It’s not true. What I didn’t know hurt me. It cost me the life of my son. Evan’s story as told by his mother…

Alicia Stillman, Director of The Emily Stillman Foundation, writes about the loss of her daughter Emily to bacterial meningitis. One of the goals of the foundation is to raise awareness of meningococcal disease and the…

Patti Wukovits, Founder of the Kimberly Coffey Foundation, recounts how her daughter died from the meningococcal B virus two years before the vaccine became available to protect against this deadly strain of meningitis. Patti wants…

After 25 years in the medical profession, Frankie Milley knew that her son had meningitis, and he was in trouble.

I have been an artist most of my life. Like a piece of my art, my body tells a story. My story is drawn on my face, it’s been stamped on my arms and legs.…

Place of Residence: Charleston, South Carolina Dylan was 10 years old when he contracted pertussis , also known as whooping cough. His mother, Leah, is the Development Lead at Vaccinate Your Family and advocates for…

Place of Residence: Wyoming, New South Wales, Australia Elijah was a healthy baby until he caught whooping cough and ended up in the hospital for four weeks . His story is an important reminder of…

I had suffered four miscarriages prior to getting pregnant with Callie. So to have her, was truly amazing. I called her our “miracle baby.” Callie’s story, as told by her mother Katie.

Landon Carter Dube was born on December 8, 2009, at 5:08 p.m., via cesarean section. Our “Carterbug” was three weeks early, weighed six pounds, six ounces, and was 18.5 inches long. Carter was born breech.…

Brie was born on January 13, 2003, weighing only 5 pounds and 12 ounces. Brie was perfectly healthy until early one Saturday morning, February 8, when she began to have a severe cough. Her parents,…

Brady was born on November 20, weighing a healthy 8 lbs., 6 oz. His parents, Kathy and Jon, insisted that friends and family wash their hands or use hand sanitizers before they were permitted to…

Claire Noelle got whooping cough (also known as pertussis) at five weeks of age. Below, read Pediatrician Rebecca Bakke’s compelling recount of the Claire’s frightening illness and how Rebecca came to terms with the realization…

Place of Residence: Northern Virginia Ally is a mom of three kids and spends her free time going to concerts. When she was born, she was exposed to hepatitis B and developed a chronic hepatitis…

Place of Residence: Phoenix, Arizona Vivian is a public health physician whose path to medicine was shaped early in life when she learned that she had been exposed to hepatitis B. Her firsthand experience with…

As a child, Chelle grew up struggling with stomach problems that went undiagnosed. When she was 18, she learned she had hepatitis B after trying to donate to a military blood drive. Watch her story.

In 1995, Sura and her brother were in medical school in Syria when he was punctured with a needle and infected with hepatitis B. Experiencing a severe infection called fulminant hepatitis, his liver began to…

Excited by the impending birth of his first child, William decided to plan for his family’s financial future. He was shocked to learn through a required health insurance blood test that he has hepatitis B…

After being diagnosed with hepatitis B, Joe didn’t seek regular monitoring because his doctor didn’t provide information about what his diagnosis meant. Years later, he learned that his liver was inflamed and that he was…

Many of Alan’s immediate family members passed away due to liver cancer, but it wasn’t until Alan himself became ill that the family realized the role hepatitis B played in these deaths. Watch his story.

Alice comes from a Chinese family where talking about illness is taboo. It was only when she became pregnant with her first child that she discovered she had hepatitis B. Watch her story.

Place of Residence: Bucks County, PA Carol’s post-polio journey was long, painful, and truly confusing . There was a diagnosis, a frightening misdiagnosis , and an enormous amount of self-doubt. Finally, in the fa ll…

Place of Residence: Massapequa Park, New York Mary Beth vividly remembers how her childhood was affected by her mother, Mildred’s, experience with polio. Before the polio vaccine became available in 1955, Mary Beth and her…

Place of Residence: Dewitt, NY As a child, Jan saw firsthand the devastation of polio. At just six years old, she survived a polio epidemic during which 8 children in a classroom of 24 were…

In 1953, at 10 months old, John came down with polio just six months before the Salk vaccine was widely tested. He was paralyzed from the neck down and hospitalized. Over the course of a…

Deb orah was completely paralyzed on her right side at age five. There was no hospital in her town, so her parents were told to take her to a hospital 100 miles away. After a…

One day John was an active 12-year-old riding his bike, playing baseball , and climbing trees. The next day , he remembers feeling bad, missing school, developing a limp , and being in an ambulance…

In 1950, Nancy was six when she came down with a high fever and a stiff neck. The next thing she knew, she was alone in an ambulance bound for a hospital at the other…

In 1950, Vera was 22 and had been traveling through Europe with her college roommate. After her energetic first day in Rome, she got out of bed and fell to the floor, unable to get…

Before the polio vaccine was available, an average of 50,000 cases were reported in the United States each year. Polio was one of the most dreaded childhood diseases of the 20th century, with annual epidemics,…

Richard was 13 years old when he got polio the summer before eighth grade. After a day of headaches, he woke up with a neck and back so painful and stiff that he couldn’t get…

Judith’s story, as told by Judith Shaw Beatty. Courtesy of ShotbyShot.org . In 1949, the year I was hit by the poliovirus, 42,000 cases of polio were reported in the United States, and 2,720 people…

Place of Residence: Eagle Pass, Texas Leticia is a devoted Community Health Worker at heart. She loves to help others by providing health information and connecting them to trustworthy resources. In her free time, she…

Place of Residence: Mystic, Connecticut Amy Pisani, CEO of Vaccinate Your Family, is committed to advocating for the use of vaccination to prevent disease. Throughout her extensive career in public health, she has encountered survivors…

Place of Residence: Mystic, Connecticut At age 21, Leslie was a healthy college student who was looking forward to starting her career as an elementary school teacher. She didn’t realize that chickenpox was not only…

Kerri’s 1-year-old son Rory got a terrible case of the chickenpox in November 2019 due to a lack of community immunity (also referred to as herd immunity). Kerri shares how her son’s serious case of…

Place of Residence: Tualatin, Oregon Teri is a tenacious, action-oriented grandmother with over 40 years of nursing experience. As a founding member of the nonprofit Grandparents For Vaccines , Teri combines her unwavering vaccine advocacy…

Place of Residence: Noblesville, Indiana Colleen’s son was born with a primary immunodeficiency that mak es him vulnerable to infectious diseases. Navigating his diagnosis as a family has m otivated Colleen to advocate for the…

Place of Residence: Lowell, Indiana Liam was a sweet, caring, and sensitive little boy who loved being outside. His favorite activities were playing basketball, dirt biking, camping, and swimming. He was also very creative and…

Place of Residence: Fairfax County, VA The medical journey that Henry and his family have traveled has given them a deep and delicate appreciation for the importance of making thoughtful medical decisions. Hear from Henry’s…

Ethan, a teenager from Ohio, traveled to Washington, D.C., to explain to the Senate that he made an informed choice to get vaccinated at age 18, after growing up unvaccinated due to online disinformation he…