Purple 4 Polio

National Polio awareness week this October highlights the Rotary campaign to eradicate polio around the world. 

In 1985 there were over 1,000 polio cases every day in 125 countries, paralysing and killing children. Rotary’s key humanitarian priority since then has been to rid the world of polio.

In Macclesfield in 1956 a 3-year old child contracted polio and the Davenport swimming baths were closed. The King’s School restricted sports activities and the opening of the new King’s art school building by HRH Duchess of Kent was postponed.  National immunisation followed following a steep rise in cases.

Today the number of cases worldwide is down by 99.9% – In 2019 there are fewer than 100 cases all Pakistan and Afghanistan. This has been achieved by international  co-operation through a remarkable partnership with Rotary between the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, the US Centres for Disease Control & Prevention and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The campaign has so far protected over 2.5 billion children from the disease through vaccination programmes.”

The Rotary club of Macclesfield Castle may be a small cog in the Rotary membership of 1.2million around the world but it has campaigned to eradicate this terrible disease and ‘done its bit’ to raise funds to support the immunisation.  The border between the last two polio-endemic countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan, is ‘more than 1,240 miles’, so we have focused  this figure around our latest campaign. The Get Moving to End Polio campaign.   The idea is simple: host an event incorporating the number 1,240 whilst raising funds to eradicate polio.

Participating teams in the Rotary Swimathon  on 15^th March can together achieve at least 1240 lengths.  Can you enter a team and make polio history?

Go to www.macclesfieldcastlerotary.org.uk and book a slot to have a whale of a time on 15^th March