Town centre event on World Polio Day October 2025

A huge teddy bear and a ukulele band brought excitement to the information stand run by Rotarians telling the folk in Market Harborough about World Polio Day on Friday October 24^th 2025 under the Old Grammar School in Market Harborough.

The display stand and rotarians were supported by lovely, lively music from the u3a ukulele band who stayed bright and focused while braving the cold and wind. Will the teddy bear kept everyone amused while the process for identifying children who had been immunised, by painting a pinky with purple ink, was demonstrated.

In the UK, polio has been got rid of. Every child gets vaccinated against polio and so this horrible disease has successfully been eradicated. However, there were at least three visitors to the stand who had contracted polio as a child and now still suffer the awful consequences. This is known as post-polio syndrome. One famous person who had this is Dury as seen in the film Sex Drugs and Rock n Roll. 

Donations totalling over £120 were given to the rotarians, and this will be tripled to £360 by a promise from Bill Gates to triple any funds raised by rotary for the worldwide campaign to End Polio Now.

Rotary International has been funding immunisation against polio since 1985, when the challenge was accepted to eradicate polio from the world by immunising every child in the world. This programme of immunisation has eradicated polio in most countries in the world but it is still present in parts of Africa and Asia. These days the vaccine is delivered by drops onto the tongue.

What is polio?

Polio (poliomyelitis) is a disease which can paralyse victims and can lead to permanent disablement or death. It is caused by a virus and is a highly infectious disease, spread mainly through close contact with an infected person. Historically, polio has been the world’s greatest cause of disability. The treatment in this country commonly used to involve devices like iron lungs or callipers.  Perhaps there are people reading this who have been affected. Children in this country have been immunised against polio since 1958, so we do not see any cases here now. The last case of polio in the UK occurred in 1993.