The Rotary Club of Calverley, plus the other 10 Rotary Clubs across Leeds will be hosting a dinner with entertainment and education on 10 March 2010 at Elland Road, where all funds raised will go directly to the international immunisation programme to finally eradicate polio from the world.

The initiative is part of Rotary's national Thanks for Life campaign, that will see hundreds of Rotary clubs across Great Britain and Ireland linking up with schools, businesses, organisations and individuals to hold a range of fund-raising events to raise the £1 million target by Thanks For Life – Rotary Day, Tuesday, February 23, 2010 (Rotary's 105th birthday).

The Rotary Club of Calverley will be working with local schools in Pudsey, Calverley, Farsley and Stanningley to raise both awareness and funds for the "End Polio Now" campaign.

Polio is a crippling, and sometimes fatal, disease and still a very harrowing reality for children in parts of Africa and Asia and threatens children everywhere. It is highly virulent and only an air flight away from the UK.

Lesley Hastings, former Head Teacher, Governor of Leeds City College and current President of the Rotary Club of Leeds said: "Every £1 raised at this Leeds dinner will purchase five doses of the special anti-polio vaccine for children. These children will be protected against polio – forever."

She continues "we are so close to stamping out polio and we hope this fun event will encourage more people to get behind the initiative. It is vital that we eradicate it from the four remaining endemic countries or the likelihood is that the disease will spread again to the countries which have been cleared. With the help of Leeds' business and communities we can destroy polio."

"Rotary has been involved in this fight for 25 years and the world is so close to being free from polio for good thanks to the joint hard work of organisations and governments. How fantastic for Leeds to join the fight and be able to say, 'We helped to wipe out a disease for only the second time in history, after smallpox; we stopped children from dying - we helped change the world'."

Last year the Rotary Clubs in this region helped raise nearly £100,000 towards polio eradication.