The tower of Gloucester Cathedral will be lit purple in support of Rotary’s key humanitarian project to rid the world of polio.

Rotary started this initiative in 1985 and within three years the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched, a partnership which included Rotary, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, amongst others and more recently the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Why purple? Well during mass national immunisation days an immunised child dips their finger into a purple dye to indicate they have received the vaccine. During the last 33 years Rotary has donated $1.8 billion to the eradication effort.

In 1985 there were 125 endemic countries with over 1,000 polio cases a day. In 2017 there were 3 endemic countries, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan with 22 reported cases in the year, a real success story for Rotary. Our website is www.rotaryatkingsholm.co.uk.

Monday 21st - Monday 28th October

Open 24hrs, free to observe