Category Archives: In the news

Deputy Mayor Nemeth and Dr Sir Liam Donaldson with the teams from Pakistan and Haiti at York Gate on 30 August 2012.

Major Polio Event held at York Gate

Deputy Mayor Nemeth and Dr Sir Liam Donaldson (at right) with the Paralympic Teams from Pakistan and Haiti at York Gate on 30 August 2012.

York Gate played host on Thursday 30th August 2012 for a major event to publicise the work of Rotarians in their campaign to eradicate Polio from the world.


Main board director of Rotary International, Allan O Jagger, supported by a large handful of past, present and future District Governors, and a large group of Rotarians played host, including past Presidents of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland. The guests included the Paralympic Teams from Haiti, Niger and Pakistan (in alphabetical order); distinguished VIPs included Councillor Dr Cyril Nemeth, Deputy Lord Mayor of Westminster, His Excellency the High Commissioner for Pakistan Wajid Shamsul Hassan, Chairman of the Global Polio Eradication Independent Monitoring Board Dr Sir Liam Donaldson (former UK Chief Medical Officer), and Rotarian Shaheed Azeem of the British Pakistan Foundation Board. There were also representatives from the UNICEF New York Office, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Global Poverty Project, and the Rotary supported British Polio Fellowship.

RI Director Allan Jagger addresses the meeting (3rd left) with (left to right at table) Shaheed Azeem, H.E. Wajid Shamul Hassan, Dep Lord Mayor Cyril Nemeth, and Dr Sir Liam Donaldson

Dr Sir Liam Donaldson, in his address asserted that it was impossible to overstate the importance of the dedication, determination and hard work of Rotarians around the world in working towards the eradication of the disease over the past 30 years. He expressed his confidence that the goal would be achieved.


The High Commissioner of Pakistan expressed his appreciation of the work of Rotarians in eradicating the disease in his country, and confirmed that his country’s government were still determined to become polio-free. 

Rotary International main board director Allan O Jagger reaffirmed Rotary’s commitment to the goal and brought the very latest figures to the event. declaring the total number of cases in 2012 as at the 29th August 2012 was just 128 (compared to 356 for the same period in 2011). When the project was started, the number of cases were typically 1,000 every day.

The team managers then introduced their team members,giving a little background about their athletic careers and about their disability. Many paralympic athletes have suffered from polio at some stage in their lives.

The Paralympic Team from Niger pose in front of some of the black and white photos that were lots in the auction held at the event.

The event closed with an auction, to raise funds for the Polio Eradication Campaign, and also to provide financial support for the Pakistani Paralympic Team Members. Lots sold included an autographed rowing shirt, a limited edition print on the theme of the paralympic games, and a large selection of black and white, and colour photographs that were autographed by the paralympians.


This was a key public event to publicise Rotary International’s key role in eradicating polio, and it was entirely appropriate that Rotary in London was chosen to act as hosts for the event by Rotary International. Despite a gusty wind in the garden, all the equipment worked exactly as required, and £3,300 was raised from the auction. All told it was a most successful afternoon that showed Rotary in London in an ideal light.

Rotary End Polio Now – on BBC, Monday 20 Feb 2012

On Monday 20th February, BBC News will be broadcasting a special report from India on polio eradication. The report will feature the BBC’s medical correspondent Fergus Walsh at an immunisation booth and will showcase a package he has recorded over the weekend showing Rotary’s work, people affected by polio and interviews with doctors. It is likely that a Rotarian, most probably Mike Yates (RC of New Mills Marple & District), will be interviewed too. The package will be featured on the six o’clock and ten o’clock news.

The following morning on BBC Breakfast the report will be featured again and this time there will be an interview with RIBI President Ray Burman.

Please note that should there be any kind of ‘disaster’ this item may be pulled. This is of course out of our control.

ROTARY YOUNG CITIZEN AWARD WINNER AMPUTEE LYDIA CROSS AT CENOTAPH REMEMBRANCE DAY PARADE

ROTARY YOUNG CITIZEN AWARD WINNER LYDIA CROSS TAKES PART IN REMEMBRANCE DAY PARADE AT CENOTAPH IN LONDON
SUNDAY, 13TH NOVEMBER, 2011

Rotary Young Citizen Award winner ten-year-old amputee Lydia Cross, who has raised more than £60,000 for the Royal British Legion and Help for Heroes, was honoured by Rotary in London who invited her to join them in their Rotary section of the Remembrance Day Parade in London on Sunday, 13th November, 2011.

 

Ten-year-old Lydia Cross, who had both her legs amputated at the age of two because of meningitis, has raised tens of thousands of pounds (with sponsored swim and runs, etc.) to help wounded servicemen, who’ve lost limbs in Afghanistan and Iraq –  she says she wanted to help them because they have “leggies like her”.  She has also organised for prosthetic limbs to be made for two former Royal marines who lost their limbs serving in Afghanistan.  In recognition, she received a Rotary Young Citizen Award (featured on BBC News) in 2010 after being nominated for the Award by her local Rotary Club in Braunton, Devon.  See  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8618717.stm.

Lydia has raised around £20,000 for Help for Heroes and has become the only child Patron.  She has taken part in a DVD to be shown in schools for HELP FOR HEROES.  Lydia had to have the bones trimmed in her legs about four weeks ago and had been forced back into using a wheelchair but she proudly wore a new pair of prosthetic legs made especially for her with poppies painted on them two days before Remembrance Sunday.   She wasdetermined to walk on them as she went past The Cenotaph in Whitehall and took the Royal Salute from Prince Charles.  Her former marine father Tony Cross pushed her wheelchair behind her.

Lydia started off the COMMANDO 999 CHALLENGE in her racing wheelchair on Saturday, 5th November, when her father and 3 other Police Officers who are all Ex Royal Marines started off a walk/march from Exeter en route to London – with teams planning to reach there ahead of the Remembrance Day Parade on Sunday, 13th November. 

Lydia and her sister Millie were awarded honouree Green Berets for their Bravery by the Royal Marine Commandos at RMB Chivenor in 2005.

Lydia has been awarded a Gold Blue Peter Badge and a Rotary Young Citizens Award for her Forces Fundraising.
Both Lydia and Millie help the Royal British Legion with Awareness.

Rotary on BBC Radio 4

“Is Rotary still relevant?” That’s the question posed on BBC Radio 4′s You and Yours http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/you-and-yours/ programme earlier this week.  Following on from the two half-hour documentaries about Rotary that were broadcast on Radio 4 in February, the BBC invited RIBI Vice President Ray Burman to explain to listeners why Rotary is as relevant today as it has ever been – both to the millions of people who benefit from Rotary’s humanitarian and community efforts around the world, and also to its members of all ages.

You can listen to the programme on the BBC website – the Rotary interview starts at the 27 minute point and runs for ten minutes. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0122td7/You_and_Yours_27_06_2011/
Once you have heard the programme you can leave a comment on the RIBI website at http://www.ribi.org/news/articles/is-rotary-still-relevant-

 

Rotary on BBC Radio 4 – Wheels Coming off At The Rotary?

The link to the website that gives details is:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xb0s3

The Rotary Club was established in Chicago in 1905 as a place where businessmen could meet, network and along the way put something back into the community. Though there were originally just four members the idea spread across first America, and then the world at a phenomenal rate, so that by the 1920s the Rotary was as firmly established in British life as it was across the Atlantic. By now it is the largest organisation of volunteers in the world.
Though never especially fashionable with the intelligentsia, for generations it has provided local businessmen with a place to meet on a weekly basis and try to make a difference, both at the local and international level – one of its most successful campaigns saw it lead the drive to stamp out polio from the planet.
In spite of this success, however, Rotary is now seeing its membership drop as its image has become shop-worn and society has changed around it, making it harder for people to make the kind of commitment in terms of time and effort that the organisation typically requires. Rotary itself says it is facing a ‘demographic time-bomb’, as it struggles to attract younger members to local clubs where the majority of the members are typically much older than them.

In ‘Wheels Coming off At The Rotary?’ Allan Beswick travels to clubs around the country and finds there are significant efforts afoot to turn things around, with newer clubs springing up where formalities are more relaxed and the meetings more accommodating to a younger age-group with less time to offer. He also visits the more traditional clubs where the members reluctantly recognise the need for things to move on, even if it means they are left to wither on the vine.