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As this is my year as Club President for the Rotary Club of Derby I wanted to do something a little different so I am going to dye my hair permanent purple at the start of October and raise money for End Polio Now to support their efforts to eradicate this terrible disease. We are nearly there.

What is Polio?

Poliomyelitis is a highly infectious disease that most commonly affects children under the age of 5.

Most know it as poliovirus. The virus is spread person to person, typically through contaminated water. It can attack the nervous system, and in some instances, lead to paralysis. Although there is no cure, there is a safe and effective vaccine - one which Rotary and our partners use to immunise over 2.5 billion children worldwide.

Rotary's pledge for a polio free world was made in 1985 when there were 125 polio endemic countries and hundreds of new cases ever single  day. Thanks to Rotary's intervention there are now just two countries classed as endemic: Pakistan and Afghanistan.

To finish the job over 2 billion doses of oral polio vaccine still have to be administered, to more than 400 million children in over 50 countries, each and every year. We have to have zero cases of polio and zero positive environmental samples before the world can finally be certified polio free.

Why purple? 

When a child receives their life-saving polio drops on mass polio immunisation days, their little finger is painted with a purple dye so it is clear that they have had the vaccine. Rotarians around the world travel to the remotest regions to ensure that everyone gets the vaccine.

Why Polio? 

When I was at school Polio was still a threat in this country and I had friends who had leg braces because they had contracted Polio at an early age. I had the polio vaccine when I was in secondary school, on a sugar cube. This was the inspiration for the song "A Spoon Full of Sugar" in Mary Poppins. Rotary has been instrumental in wiping out this debilitating disease but our efforts need to continue to achieve this fully. 

Each year The Rotary Club of Derby have activities that supports End Polio Now and Polio Awareness Day on October 24th. This has included lighting up local landmarks in purple and planting thousands or purple crocuses across local parks. We also have a Polio Pig, an End Polio Now piggy bank that our members use to add donations in exchange for sharing good news stories.  

Fundraising through Rotary ensures that every £1 raised towards Polio eradication will be match funded by £2 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. For example your £5 sponsorship/donation would have a value of £15. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I would like to thank you if you feel inspired to sponsor my fundraising efforts. I will be personally contributing the cost of dyeing my hair so 100% will go to charity.

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