Purple4Polio

PURPLE FOR POLIO

Come and see the Purple Crocus Displays from Mid February onwards.

The Rotary Club of Newport Pagnell has been planting purple crocus in the town for over five years. The displays are located in Ousebank Gardens, on Willen Road grass verges and the main display adjacent to the Newport Pagnell Fire station. There is also a display  on the roundabout on the road out of Olney to the east of the town.

The latest planting session was on 17th. October, 2020, when 4000 further bulbs were planted to enlarge the existing Fire Station area display. Several members of  Newport Pagnell Rotary  gathered on the morning to plant the bulbs.

The purple crocus is the symbol of Rotary's 35-year campaign, in partnership with the World Health Organisation to eradicate polio through mass immunisation abroad, specifically in Africa, India, Pakistan, and other undeveloped countries..

Since the start of the programme, the number of new polio cases per year has reduced from over 400,000 to less than 20. During the 1950s and 60s, polio was a major concern in the UK. Polio is now only endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Greater acceptance of immunisation in those countries is helping to finally eradicate the disease. Only three countries now have the disease in single figure numbers, with the whole of Africa now being polio free.

Rotary Internation together with the WHO has been instrumental in dramatically reducing the horrific results of this disease. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (he of Microsoft fame) have also matched the multi-million pounds invested by the International Rotary movement.