N.B. IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO DONATE!

On January 1st 2009, New Years Day, to raise funds for Rotarys $100 Million Challenge, I participated in the aptly named ‘Loony Dook’ in South Queensferry . This world-famous event involves a huge number of people, many in fancy dress, aged from 8 to 80 taking a plunge in the freezing River Forth in the shadow of the famous Bridges. The event welcomed more than 300 participants and approaching 3000 spectators from all over the world. 

I was assured that it would be a shock to the system, hitting the freezing waters of the Forth but it was much worse coming out into the freezing cold air! Fortunately Heather was standing by with towels and hot soup to revive me!

Rotary International made a commitment to immunize the world’s children against polio in 1985 and became a spearheading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative three years later. The other partners are the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF.

When Rotary began its eradication work, polio infected more than 350,000 children annually but thanks to Rotary and its partners, the number of polio cases has been slashed by more than 99 percent, preventing five million instances of childhood paralysis and 250,000 deaths. In 2007, fewer than 2,000 cases were reported worldwide.

But the polio cases represented by that final 1 percent will be the most difficult and expensive to prevent.

Your sponsorship is helping Rotary match a $100 million challenge grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The resulting $200 million will directly support immunization campaigns in developing countries, where polio continues to infect and paralyze children, robbing them of their futures and compounding the hardships faced by their families.

As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, children everywhere remain at risk. The stakes are that high.

Thanks to your sponsorship, you are helping Rotary achieve a polio-free world as well as having ensured I went through with this "interesting" way of welcoming in 2009!

I am grateful to the Rotary Club of Tower Hamlets for allowing me to use their Justgiving site to carry out this initiative.

I have been overwhelmed by the support I have recieved and, on behalf of the children that have been helped, I thank ever one of my many sponsors and remember, for those who still wish to donate - IT IS NOT TOO LATE!!

With all best wishes for 2009,

Gordon