ROTARIANS have planted thousands of purple crocus bulbs around Northallerton as part of a worldwide campaign to eradicate polio.

Members of Northallerton Mowbray Rotary Club have planted around 3,000 bulbs outside the Friarage Hospital and on the Lees Lane roundabout at the southern end of the town.

The Purple4Polio plantings come towards the end of a successful 30-year campaign that has seen the disease eradicated by 99.9 per cent.

Where once there were 1,000 new cases a day in 125 countries, there are now only 30 cases reported worldwide in the countries where polio is still endemic - Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

Around the UK, the country’s Rotarians will be planting more than six million corms, boosting awareness of the campaign with a flood of purple crocuses in the spring.