STOKESLEY METHODIST CHURCH and the Town Hall have been illuminated with purple lights since last Wednesday to raise awareness of polio.

The initiative came from Stokesley Rotary, one of thousands of Rotary clubs across the world taking action for World Polio Day on Saturday, October 24. The colour is symbolic, as the little finger of each child who receives the polio vaccine, is painted purple to show they have received it.

Judy Kitching , a former President of Stokesley Rotary, had the original idea of lighting up the church, which has been a huge success. “ We had many coffee mornings and fund- raisers for polio, but I had this idea for the illumination and I knew somebody who could do it," she said. “It was so lovely, we thought it would be a good idea to light up the Town Hall too.”

The Rotary Club of Guisborough and Great Ayton has also been an enthusiastic supporter of the Rotary International campaign, backing it for more than 25 years.

The club has donated a total of almost £12,500 from its charity fund and over the years, several events have been organised to raise money and promote awareness, including the planting of crocuses on Low Green, Great Ayton, by local school children under the initiative “Purple for Polio”.

Darlington and Stockton Times:

Polio is a crippling and potentially fatal disease for which there is no cure and at the beginning of the last century it was one of the most feared diseases for children. In the middle of the century effective vaccines were introduced and in 1985 Rotary made a pledge to work for a polio free world when there were 125 polio endemic countries and hundreds of new cases every single day.

Globally more than 2.5 billion children have been protected against the disease, which has reduced the number of cases by 99.9 per cent. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative supports the Rotary initiative and this includes the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which matches every £1 raised. There are now just two countries still classed as endemic, Pakistan and Afghanistan.