Ledbury Rotarian, Jan Long, and her ‘End Polio Now’ bear, Harrison visited a meeting of Ross Rotary Club to talk about their involvement in a Rotary International trip to India to support the Indian National Polio Immunisation Week.

She started her talk by giving an update to the End Polio Now project. She said that by overcoming suspicion, hostility and superstition, teams of volunteers have worked tirelessly over many years to eradicate the virus. This has been achieved worldwide, with only Afghanistan and bordering Pakistan (with only a handful of cases reported) not completely polio free.

In the battle to defeat it, Rotarians from clubs around the globe joined forces with health workers to vaccinate every child in India. Immunisation now takes the form of drops given orally to all children under the age of five, and Jan had the opportunity to join teams from other countries to work in the capital, Delhi.

Jan described the programme of work as beginning at 8am each day, with the first main event being a visit to a school. Here the 800 pupils took part in a colourful parade to herald the arrival of the immunisation teams and raise awareness of the National Immunisation Project. She added that small booths set up around the poorest areas attracted large numbers of families, with children lining up for their life-saving immunisation drops.

She explained that visits also took her to the Rotary Foundation-endowed St. Stephen’s Hospital. This is where the Polio Unit’s dedicated orthopaedic miracle worker, Dr Matthew, labours long hours to provide mobility, albeit using callipers and crutches, to the seriously crippled young adults not immunised when they were infants.

She added that to support this essential work, Rotary Clubs made donations toward the cost of equipment needed to help straighten malformed spines.

In addition she made a visit to a Rotary-funded Diabetes Hospital which was of great interest to Jan as Ledbury Rotary Club runs a Diabetic foot-care programme.

When members of Ross Rotary Club asked if she would do the trip again she said, without hesitation, ‘Yes.’

The End Polio Now project’s fifth annual World Polio Day is on October 24th.