Two of the district’s most iconic churches turned purple to show support for the fight against a killer disease.

Holy Trinity Church in Halstead and St Giles Church in Great Maplestead were lit up with purple lights by Halstead Rotary Club to mark World Polio day.

The annual event is held across the world and sees rotary clubs up and down the country raises funds which will help research treatments for polio.

The Halstead branch also held a traditional afternoon tea party at the home of Rotarian Peter Haylock and his wife Lyn in Great Maplestead which saw more than £400 donated to the cause.

Purple is a symbolic colour of the campaign as it represents the purple ink which id displayed on children’s fingers to show they have been properly immunised against polio.

A rotary club spokesman said: "The eradication of Polio world wide is a rotary international key objective and has been for many years, this great cause is now also supported by Bill and Melinda Gates of Microsoft who match fund all of the money raised by rotary.

"Great progress has been made and the number of cases reported each year is now in single figures, albeit these are in very hard to reach countries difficult to access, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan."