Wiping out Polio by planting Crocuses

Spring in Bishop’s Hull should be that much more colourful thanks to a donation of 15 hundred crocus corms by Taunton Vale Rotary Club.   The purple crocuses were purchased by the Club in support of Rotary’s ‘End Polio Now’ campaign. They are being planted by volunteers around the new B.H. Hub and playing field.

When children are vaccinated in the third world, the tip of their little finger is stained with a purple dye to show they’ve been immunised;  hence purple crocuses.

Rotarian and B.H. resident Richard Austin says “Rotary members have raised nearly £2 billion over 35 years to help fund the world wide project.  The crippling and sometimes fatal disease has been banished from most of the world and now Polio is restricted to a few areas in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  But until it is eradicated, over 400 million children in more than 50 countries still have to receive their polio vaccinations every single year, otherwise it could sweep back just like COVID.”