Trafford’s town hall turned purple last night to raise awareness for World Polio Day.

The town hall looked very different in the dark yesterday to draw attention a campaign to wipe out the highly infectious disease that can cause paralysis in a matter of hours.

According to the World Health Organisation, thanks to vaccines cases of polio have reduced worldwide by over 99 per cent since 1988, but it says more needs to be done to make the devastating disease a thing of the past.

The campaign was organised by rotary clubs across the UK and around the world and aims to encourage parents to get their children vaccinated against the disease which currently has no cure.

The colour purple was chosen to mirror the colour pen nurses uses to mark a child’s finger to show when they’ve been vaccinated for polio.

If eradicated, polio would be just the second human disease wiped out in human history – the first was smallpox eradicated in 1979.

There have been 94 cases of polio detected worldwide so far this year. The campaign wants to get that down to zero.

For a disease to be considered eradicated it needs to have not been detected worldwide for at least three years.

Last year, Altrincham Town Hall was lit up bright purple for the same campaign.