Cromer and Sheringham Rotary Club has handed over �2,500 for Rotary's international campaign to eradicate polio right across the world.

There to receive the cheque was Steve Munns, chairman of the Rotary district committee spearheading the campaign in East Anglia.

The money was raised primarily from the Carlo Curley organ concert held in Cromer last summer and other events for the same cause are planned for later this year.

The presentation coincided with the news last week that Rotary is cautiously celebrating a major milestone in the global effort to eradicate the crippling disease polio. India, until recently an epicentre of the wild poliovirus, has completed a full calendar year without recording a new case since January 13 2011.

The milestone is seen as a testament to the determination of Rotary members in Great Britain and Ireland and the rest of the world, especially the 116,000-plus Rotarians of India, to eradicate the infectious disease through the mass immunisation of children, a goal Rotary took on 27 years ago.

Rotary launched its polio eradication programme in 1985 and, in 1988, became a spearheading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, with the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Since then, new cases of polio have plummeted by more than 99 percent, from more than 350,000 cases a year to only 604 reported so far for 2011.

Jim Page, president of the Cromer and Sheringham Club said: 'Here in our area Rotarians have worked with communities to raise funds for this life-saving campaign. It is incredible to think that every penny raised is helping to spare children from this crippling and sometimes fatal disease. It has taken over 25 years but there is a lot of good news here and we are all hoping that tests will show that India is on the road to recovery.'

If you would like to know more about Rotary, contact your local Rotary club (01263 578194) and discover how you can make a world of a difference.