Since 1985 Rotary International has been at the forefront of the global campaign to eliminate polio, helping to immunise 2.5 billion children.

It was World Polio Day on Thursday, October 24th and members of Ross Rotary Club were in the Market Place selling purple crocus corms for 20p each - the price of one life saving vaccine. Polio was one of the UK’s most feared childhood diseases until the introduction of effective vaccines in the 1950s but it has continued to blight other parts of the world.

Thanks to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative launched in the 1980s by Rotary International and the World Health Organisation, by 2017 there were just 22 reported cases.

Purple has become a symbolic colour in the fight against polio, inspired by the colour of the dye painted on the little finger of a child to signify they have received a potentially life-saving polio vaccine.

This is essential on mass immunisation days when literally millions of children receive the vaccine across entire regions or even countries. See the full story in this week’s edition of the Ross Gazette, or subscribe to our online edition here