The Rotary Club of Rushen and Western Mann is continuing its efforts to support Rotary’s campaign to End Polio Now.

As part of the club’s efforts to highlight the campaign in the island, it has bought 4,000 and asked Phurt Le Moirrey’s head teacher Anje Callaghan and all the pupils to help plant them as part of the Purple4Polio campaign.

Rushen and Western Mann President Roger Barrs said: ’We’re really excited to be getting involved in the planting of thousands of Purple4Polio crocus corms here in Port St Mary.

’The crocus should act as a permanent reminder of Rotary’s fight to totally eliminate this deadly disease that mainly infects children under the age of five, and can cause paralysis and even death.

’We are hoping to carry out further End Polio Now fundraising in springtime when the Millennium Garden will be bright with the purple crocus the pupils of Phurt Le Moirrey School have planted this month.’

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a slow down in the Rotary Club’s End Polio Now campaign as thousands of workers and an extensive network of laboratories are helping in the global coronavirus fight.

However, the club says it is vital that when the time is right, the fight to eradicate polio can continue.

Here in the Isle of Man and across Great Britain and Ireland Rotary members are making plans to add to the millions of purple crocus that already each spring to highlight the Rotary End Polio Now campaign.

Every £1 raised is matched 2:1 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, so becomes £3.

David Maddrell, of the Rushen and Western Mann club, told the Courier: ’Polio and Covid-19 are each classified by the World Health Organisation as a public health emergency of international concern.

’The world is now only too well aware that a virus can literally be just a plane ride away. Thankfully for the Poliovirus there is a safe and effective vaccine but we still have to ensure every single child across the globe receives their polio immunisations.

’The extensive and sustained global effort by Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) to rid the world of polio continues to be committed to fighting polio and not letting the progress made in over 30 years of work to be eroded in these unprecedented times.’

The Rotary Club of Rushen and Western Mann is nearly 50 years old and meets on a weekly basis.

To donate to the End Polio Now campaign or for more information, email [email protected] or search for the club on Facebook.