Stamford churches turn purple for Rotary polio campaign

Churches are being bathed in purple light to highlight work to eradicate a terrible disease.

‘Purple for polio’ symbolises the efforts of Stamford’s three Rotary clubs to support an ongoing campaign to end the suffering brought by the polio infection.

Since 1985, Rotary’s key humanitarian priority has been to rid the world of polio, mainly through vaccinations. Children’s fingers are dipped in purple dye after vaccination.

When they began there were 125 countries where polio cases were being diagnosed, at a global rate of 1,000 cases a day.

The disease mainly affects children under five and causes irreversible paralysis. If this affects breathing muscles the child can die.

Now there are only two countries in the world where polio is still a problem - Afghanistan and Pakistan - although efforts must continue to prevent new cases emerging there and elsewhere in the world.

The Rotary Club of Stamford, The Rotary Club of Stamford Burghley, and The Rotary Club of Stamford St Martin’s work on various projects to raise funds and awareness of the Rotary’s international polio campaign.

As well as temporarily lighting up All Saints and other churches around the town with a purple hue, they plant purple-flowering crocus bulbs, which will be seen on some of the verges in Stamford in spring.

On Thursday (October 25), members of all three clubs got together at All Saints’ Church in Red Lion Square to discuss the work they are doing.

Anyone wishing to join a Rotary club in Stamford in order to support their work can find more details online.