THOUSANDS of bright purple crocuses have been planted by schools across Chippenham and Corsham to symbolise the Rotary Club's ongoing fight to eradicate polio.

The Rotary Club of Chippenham Wiltshire Vale helped schools such as Redland Primary plant more than 5,000 purple flowers on Tuesday, November 8 to raise awareness of nationwide campaign called Purple4Polio, which will see five million flowers planted across the country.

Alison Moore, a teaching assistant at Redland Primary School, said: "I think it is nice for the children to get involved with something of such importance. We take it for granted that all our children are immunied from polio from a very young age and it is quite important for the children to see that us not the case across the world.

"We have planted 600-700 bulbs around the base of a willow structure like a tunnel so in March time it will be really colourful."

This year will mark 30 years since the Rotary Club first began to tackle the disease and today only Afghanistan and Pakistan still suffer from the disease.

Bill Henry of the Rotary club of Chippenham Wiltshire Vale said: "The crocuses are a symbol really and in this area we have planted 5,000 across seven schools in Corsham and Chippenham. Next March their will be plenty of purple crocuses to remind us about the fight against polio.

"Other places have gone for civic town plants but we have gone for school as it is low key but it gets the message across to under 11-year-olds. The schools have put up notices to say when and why they were planted and in assemblies they are being taught about it and education is a key element.