The Kenilworth Rotary Club plans to light up Holiday Inn building in purple for World Polio Day

The Kenilworth Rotary Club will also have a stall in Talisman Square as part of World Polio Day on Thursday October 24 to help promote the End Polio Now project.

Rotary club members will be at the stall from 10am to 4pm with a few display information boards handing out leaflets and collecting donations.

Since 1988 Rotary International has contributed more than $1.9 billion to the campaign to eradicate polio.

John Stanton, with the Kenilworth Rotary Club, said: “Polio eradication is a main project of Rotary International. We’ve made incredible progress towards eradicating polio. But we need to work together to get the job done.

“Although there are reports of a few isolated cases in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Pakistan are now the only two countries where wild poliovirus cases are being reported.”

Later in the day the club will switch on the purple lighting, which will display the words – End POLIO NOW – from 6 to 10pm.

John added: “This tells people what we're trying to do and also encourages them to help. It's not over until every single case is gone.

"Something dramatic like this allows us to tell people the problem is still there. It's left us in Britain, but it's still a problem in a very areas of the world."

Rotary International's donations are now matched 2:1 by the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation. Other government and World Health Organisation (WHO) contributions have also contributed to the cause.

John added: "It's the biggest project Rotary International has, and it's the first time we've actually lit up anything in purple. We've never really done anything as ambitious as this for World Polio Day.”