Crocus bulbs planted for polio awareness

A GROUP from Henley has planted 1,000 purple crocuses to raise awareness of polio.

Henley Rotary club planted the bulbs in its centennial garden in Mill Meadows on Saturday.

This is part of a nationwide project by the volunteers group called Purple4polio, which aims to help end polio forever.

Phil Fletcher, secretary of the club, said: “Rotary’s has been involved since the Eighties in trying to end polio. Together, groups from around the world have raised millions of dollars and provided thousands of volunteers to inoculate children.

“The volunteers would go, for example to India, into the villages to inoculate the children. They knew which children had been vaccinated by getting them to dip their pinky finger in indelible ink, which is purple. This is why we are planting purple crocuses as part of the project.

“To raise awareness come the spring I will put a sign up to say what it is all about. I want a big blaze of colour in the middle.

“When our club got involved in the project in 1985 there were 350,000 cases of polio in the world. Now it is just a couple of handfuls, predominantly in Pakistan, Afghanistan and, more recently, it is now in Gaza.”

Jane Bertelli, president of the club, said: “I think it is going to be spectacular and eye-catching when people walk past the beds. Hopefully it will draw attention to the Rotary Garden, which has been here since 2005.”

Emma Smith, 47, from Hurley, a new member of the club, said: “We are supporting Purple4polio, which is one of Rotary’s big campaigns. The crocuses will draw attention to the Rotary Garden because I do not think a lot of people really realise that it is here.

“We work a lot with the local community, and we want to raise awareness of that. I wanted to join Rotary from both a social aspect and obviously to help the local community and get involved in the local community as well.”