Chance for Ludlow residents to get billionaire Bill Gates to treble their money for polio cause

Ludlow Rotary Club is supporting the global effort to eradicate polio from the world and invites all to join them in “walking a mile for polio” any time between 10am and 12 noon on Sunday October 22.

Tom Hunt, the Ludlow Rotary organiser said “Until polio is totally eradicated, every child is at risk of this highly infectious, potentially life-threatening and paralysing disease.

“There is no cure for polio but there is a safe and effective vaccine which we need to continue to roll out until there are no more cases.”

“When the world is finally declared polio free, it will be just the second human disease ever to be eradicated, after smallpox.”

“Please help Rotary to wipe the life threatening and disabling poliovirus off the face of the earth simply by walking a mile for polio, and donating £1.”

A number of routes starting from a registration point by the entrance to Ludlow Castle and suitable for all levels of fitness have been selected for the purpose.

No individual will be asked to give more than £1 - but as many pounds as possible will be welcomed.

Every donation to Rotary will be trebled by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, so every £1 will become £3.

Rotary International has been battling to eradicate polio from the world for almost 40 years.

When it launched its global campaign to fight the crippling and sometimes deadly disease, more than 350,000 children were being paralysed by polio every year in 125 countries.

Today, as a result of an intensive immunisation programme, the incidence of polio has been reduced by 99.9 per cent and the wild polio virus is now only endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan where less than 10 cases have been identified so far this year.

Rotary International, along with other agencies, continues to raise funds to bring this devastating and crippling disease to a world-wide end.

Because of the efforts of Rotary and its partners, nearly 19 million people who would otherwise have been paralysed are walking, and more than 1.5 million people are alive who would otherwise have died.

For further information see: ludlowrotaryclub.org.uk