MONDAY October 24 marks End Polio Day and Callington Rotary is drawing people’s attention to the event by turning St Mary’s Church in Callington and the Stoke Climsland Parish Church PURPLE on the evenings of Sunday October 23 and Monday October 24.

At the end of the 1980’s more than 350,000 children were paralysed by polio every year. Today, Rotary and its partners have reduced the incidence of polio by 99.9%. However, eradication efforts are still required.

Thanks to vaccination efforts, polio is considered to be eliminated in most first-world countries such as the UK, however the London Beckton Sewage Treatment Works recently detected poliovirus in a number of sewage samples, raising concern about the possibility of viral spread.

The Rotary are appealing for funds to continue immunisations and surveillance efforts.

If you would like to offer support or for more information visit endpolio.org