Shropshire Star

Oswestry set to turn purple for World Polio Day

Oswestry will turn purple for polio later this month.

Published
Oswestry Guildhall

St Oswald’s Church, the town's castle ruins and the Guildhall in Bailey Head and possibly the entrance to the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital will be bathed in purple light as part of the Rotary World Polio Day celebrations.

The colour purple represents the colour of the dye placed on a child’s finger to show they have been immunised against the disease.

Oswestry Cambrian Rotary is joining thousands of other Rotary clubs around the world in supporting World Polio Day on October 24 and the week after.

Mike Lade from the club said: "Many of us are of an age where we can remember polio here in the UK in our childhood. Immunisation here and across Europe and beyond has eradicated the devastating disease that crippled children. But there are still pockets in parts of the world."

He said that since Rotary and its partners launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative over 30 years ago, the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99.99 per cent from about 350,000 cases a year in 125 countries to just less than 25 cases in 2018 and with just three remaining polio-endemic countries. Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation matches the Rotary's fundraising, 2:1 so every £1 raised becomes £3.

"Whilst tremendous progress has been made, the final steps on any journey are often the some of the hardest and 2019 has been far from easy, with a handful of cases in the first eight months of the year."

However, extensive global environmental sampling around the world has made highlighting and mobilising against threats to eradication easier, more targeted and often more effective. This reemphasises the challenges facing the world in ensuring that polio becomes just the second human disease ever to be eradicated."

Oswestry Cambrian Rotary meets at the Wynnstay Hotel in Oswestry on Thursday evenings at 7.30pm.