Manx football players will be sending out an 'End Polio Now' message as part of a major campaign by Douglas Rotary club.

The team will wear the slogan on new home and away shirts. It's thought to be the first time any international football team has been allowed to promote awareness of a campaign on match shirts.

Manx International Football Alliance chief executive Malcolm Blackburn said: 'We are delighted and honoured that Rotary International see us as being useful in the global fight to eradicate polio and to be the first international football team in the world to be able to use its exposure potential for such an amazing goal is humbling.'

World Polio Day is on October 24 and Douglas Rotary has organised a string of events, including lighting up the 'Wedding Cake' government building and the Tower of Refuge in purple, which is the colour of Rotary's End Polio Now campaign. An iron lung that was used 50 years ago when polio was still endemic in the Isle of Man will be on display at a lunch for invited guests and available to be shown in local schools.

Since 2011, Douglas Rotary has raised over ?30,000 which has allowed more than 150,000 children in poorer countries to be immunised against polio.

Campaign chairman Kevin Kneen said: 'The fight to end polio is the largest public health initiative in history. Rotary and our global partners are working to try and eradicate polio by 2018.'

Contact Kevin on 673845 or email kevinkneen@outlook.com

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