Spring visitors to Lymm’s Spud Wood will find part of it bursting into action, creating a brilliant, purple landscape. Five thousand purple crocus bulbs will be coming into bloom in time for Rotary’s “Purple4Polio” campaign.

Lymm Rotary Club’s President, Sue Tupman, said, “Purple4Polio” really does save lives. The colour purple is symbolic of the dye used to mark a little child’s finger once they have been vaccinated against polio”. She added, “In 1985 Rotary launched its immunisation programme, “Polio Plus”. promising to rid the world of this dreadful disease. At that time the number of polio endemic countries was 125. Today that total is just 3, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, with over 2.5 billion children having been vaccinated. The “Purple4Polio” is part of Rotary’s push to eradicate polio for ever”.

The “Purple4Polio” campaign is a partnership between Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland and the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) which allows Rotary Clubs to join forces with the RHS’s Community Bloom Groups and work to bring people together and transform public places to brighten up the local area and promote health and well-being by planting 6 million crocus corms.