by local ambulance services, and for the next four years marketed it as the Sylvia Stretcher, in Australia, Europe and the United States. She earned a substantial royalty from the sale of the stretcher, and is believed to have turned some of the profits over to the Country Women's Association. At that time Kenny, while travelling to sell the Stretcher, adopted eight-year-old Mary Stewart to be a companion for her elderly mother. Mary later became one of Sister Kenny's best "technicians". Polio treatment As sales of the Sylvia Stretcher declined in the early 1930s, Kenny resumed her involvement with the CWA and campaigning for improved rural first-aid services. In May 1931, Kenny visited the Rollinson family who owned a station, Allandale, west of Townsville. Kenny had befriended the Rollinsons in London in 1929 while promoting her ambulance stretcher. The family asked Kenny to care for their niece Maude, who was disabled by polio. After 18 months of care under Kenny's direction, Maude recovered sufficiently to walk, marry and conceive a child. Kenny’s use of hydrotherapy with Maude caught the attention of Mrs Herbert Brookes, wife of the Trade Commissioner-General for Australia. In 1932, Queensland suffered its highest number of polio cases in 30 years. This outbreak focussed public attention on the inadequacy of treatment for victims of paralysis. The following year, local people helped Kenny set up a rudimentary paralysis-treatment facility under canopies behind the Queens Hotel in Townsville. The makeshift clinic expanded as more parents brought their children to be treated by Kenny. In March 1934 the Queensland Government provided funds for a trial of Kenny’s methods at the Townsville Clinic. An initial favourable evaluation of the clinic by Dr Rae Dungan was followed by a more critical report by Dr Raphael Cilento. Her success led to Kenny clinics being established in several Australian cities. Nothing remains of the Townsville Clinic or the George Street Clinic in Brisbane, but the Sister Kenny Clinic in the Outpatients Building of the Rockhampton Base Hospital is now listed on the Queensland Heritage Register. Over the years, Kenny developed her clinical method and gained recognition in Australia. She was strongly opposed to immobilising children's bodies with plaster casts or braces. Kenny requested permission to treat children in the acute stage of the disease with hot compresses, but doctors would not allow that until after the acute stage of the disease, or until "tightness"