An ambitious campaign could rid the world of a terrible childhood disease.

But it needs your help, as CHRIS TITLEY reveals

POLIO was once the sort of disease parents only spoke of in terrified whispers. Children who contracted poliomyelitis disappeared from school for weeks. When they returned, they could be wearing callipers, or walking with crutches, permanently disabled.

Those days have long gone - in Britain at least. A mass vaccination programme rolled out in the 1950s eradicated the disease.

But polio retained its grim status as being the world's greatest cause of disability.

It is a virus of the gut, and is often passed from one person to another through contaminated water supplies. That means children in developing countries are particularly at risk. Once in the brain, the virus destroys some of the nerve cells which control muscles. This leads to muscle paralysis at distant points on the body. The leg or foot are often affected.

Paralysis can be temporary or permanent; if it occurs at an age where the body is still growing a child might develop one leg shorter than the other.

In 1985, the 40th anniversary of the United Nations, Rotary International pledged $120 million to buy polio vaccine in support of a global effort to immunise the children of the world. The charitable organisation called it PolioPlus.

This has proved to be an incredibly effective campaign. In 1988 there were 350,000 cases of polio in 125 countries. By 2001 there were just 600 cases in ten countries.

It is no coincidence that these countries are among the poorest on the planet and include Sudan, Ethiopia, Senegal, Afghanistan and parts of the Indian sub-continent.

Now PolioPlus is on its final push. Rotary is determined to eradicate polio entirely by 2005 - its centenary year. That would be a genuine triumph. But it can only be achieved with our help. Rotary needs to raise another $80 million to buy vaccines and fund doctors and other medical staff to complete the vaccination programme.

Every one of the world's 30,000 Rotary clubs are doing their bit. And the three in this city, the Rotary Clubs of York, Ainsty and Viking, are joining together to staff street collections this month.

The first began today. Rotary volunteers will be shaking their tins at you in the National Railway Museum during the next two weeks, which cover the half terms of different education authorities.

So if you are on your way to see Thomas The Tank Engine, pop a coin or two in the slot on your way.

Then there is a PolioPlus street collection in the Coppergate Centre on Saturday February 22. "It was a terrible disease which crippled British children, and completely paralysed them in some cases," recalled Frank Paterson, president of the Rotary Club of York. "Thankfully it has been long gone from this country.

"Now with Rotary providing the money for the vaccine programme and the volunteers to administer it, we can rid the rest of the world of polio forever."

York Rotary members, with the help of their mascot Dino The Dinosaur, will be hoping to send a sizeable donation to the PolioPlus coffers, before returning to fundraising for local causes. Please help if you can.

- To send a donation, make your cheque out to the Rotary Club of York and send it to club treasurer Mike Miller at 42 Briargate, Haxby, York YO32 3YP

Updated: 09:26 Monday, February 17, 2003