F. Ball has joined the fight to eradicate polio around the world, by backing charitable organisation, Rotary’s ‘Purple4Polio’ campaign. F. Ball sponsored local club, Leek Rotary Club, which undertook a ‘Purple4Polio Grand Tour’ around the county of Staffordshire to raise money that will be used to vaccinate children against polio in over 60 countries around the world.
The campaign theme takes its name from the purple dye that is applied to children’s little fingers once they have had the vaccination to provide a simple visual indicator for the medical staff administering the medicine.
Leek Rotary Club toured 24 towns across Staffordshire in a purple-coloured Mercedes saloon, festooned with the logos of its sponsors, to highlight the campaign and encourage people to make donations to this very worthy cause.
The Rotary club’s efforts raised over £13,000 from sponsorship and donations, which will be match-funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Purple4Polio initiative is part of the wider Rotary organisation’s aim to eradicate polio around the world; an ambitious project, started in 1985 when there were hundreds of cases across 125 countries around the world, and which has seen this reduced to just 22 cases worldwide in 2017.