End Polio Now 1240 Challenge
A Purple4Polio fundraising activity inspired by the length of the border between the remaining two polio-endemic countries.

The Mission

Polio, the horrific disease that was at its peak worldwide in the 1950’s is little heard of nowadays but still remains rife on the Afghanistan / Pakistan border.

When Rotary first undertook to eradicate this debilitating disease, some 30 years ago, in excess of 350,000 people per annum were struck dow. However, following the donation of in excess of $1.9 Billion by the movement, the number of cases this year has been reduced to below 100.

In order to continue these efforts in 2019 Rotary launched a new campaign based upon the length of the Pakistan / Afghanistan border which stands at some 1240 miles.

Seeking to support this initiative two Eden Valley Rotarians Roger Frank of the Upper Eden Club and John Taylor of the Appleby Club challenged themselves to a “1240 km road run to arrive at 12:40 at the Grays Thurrock Club in District 1240 donating £1240 to the Rotary Get Moving to End Polio 1240 Challenge”.

The Result

We set off in mid October in order to arrive in Grays Thurrock on World Polio day the 24th October 2019.

Tuesday 22ndOctober

A bleak start to the day as we leave Appleby and head off across the Pennines and then South via the back roads.

Leaving Appleby

Frequent coffee stops and a warm bowl of soup for lunch kept us going and some 170 miles later we crossed the particularly draughty Humber Bridge and into Scunthorpe. We were made most welcome at the Scunthorpe Pentagon Fellowship evening who presented us with a donation.

Donation from Scunthorpe Pentagon

Wednesday 23rd October

A cold frosty morning so the first task of the day was the removal of ice from both sides of the windscreen.

Setting off on Day 2

Heading due south we made good progress arriving late morning at the Nene Valley railway near Peterborough. With time in hand, a run up and down the line was in order followed by lunch in the Station buffet.

Nene Valley railway

Refreshed we soon rounded Cambridge and headed to Saffron Walden for our overnight stay. The one way system and parking in this Market Town proved to be a nightmare but we eventually found the main car park but what to do with the parking ticket as rain was due. After a scrub up we head off to the Saffron Walden Rotary Trafalgar Night held in the towns Golf Club. A great evening of factual nostalgia, pomp and circumstance with the odd sea shanty and a rousing "Rule Britannia" finale.

Saffron Walden Rotary Trafalgar Night

Saffron Walden Rotary Trafalgar Night

Thursday 24th October 2019 WORLD POLIO DAY

Heading out of Saffron Walden we stuck to the back roads and relatively easily found our way through Essex and down to Grays Thurrock. We had anticipated that as we got closer to the Thames/London the traffic would have become problematic but this proved not to be the case. Arriving at the allotted time (12:40) we were cordially met by President Elaine and members of the Grays Thurrock Rotary Club and had an excellent lunch with them before being invited to give a brief presentation on our initiative.

President Elaine presenting us with a donation to End Polio

With lunch over it was soon time to head back North. We had travelled some 398 miles (640 km) in the dry reaching Grays but the weather was turning inclement with heavy rain during lunch but we managed to start our journey home with the roof still down.

Mission accomplished

Friday 25th Oct

It was a greyish morning when we left our overnight accommodation in Thaxted and having had a close eye on the forecast decided that we would need Bertie’s hood for the remainder of our journey back north. We ran into torrential rain around Newark and it never let up until we arrived back into the Eden Valley some 5 hours later by which time everything was soaking wet including the contents of our suitcases.

So our initiative was complete. We had...

Driven 1240 km and arrived at 1240 at the Grays Thurrock Rotary Club in District 1240 on World Polio Day (24th October 2019) donating in excess of £1240 to the Rotary Get Moving to End Polio 1240 Challenge.

Would anybody like to follow this initiative for this good cause?