Polio victim

Sydney, April 5: An Australian polio victim confined to a Melbourne hospital with an "iron lung" respirator for the past six decades completed her 82nd birthday Sunday.

June Middleton, who entered the Guinness Book of Records three years ago as the person who had spent the longest time in an iron lung, had 160 well-wishers around her bedside.

Middleton reportedly still takes pleasure in visiting St Kilda beach, where she swam as a child. She travels there in a special van.