RHOS-on-Sea Rotary Club's recent collection will be boosted by Microsoft founder Bill Gates to provide 3,600 polio immunisations to children living in disease hotspots.

The group's recent collection at the Colwyn Centre raised £240 towards the Rotary Clubs global Polio Plus campaign. The Bill Gates Foundation has agreed to boost all money raised two-to-one - meaning £720 will be donated on behalf of Rhos-on-Sea Rotary Club.

Together the Rotary Club and the Bill Gates Foundation are working to eradicate polio. Rotary's Polio Plus Campaign has helped immunise 2.5 billion children globally since 1985.

"We would like to thank the Colwyn Centre for allowing us to collect and all the people who donated," said a spokesperson for Rhos-on-Sea Rotary Club. "Polio mainly affects children under the age of 5 and when this campaign began it was endemic in 125 countries. In recent years that has been reduced to two - Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"This year polio was detected among refugees in Gaza. It costs just 20p to protect a child with a life changing polio vaccine. If the campaign can successfully eradicate polio, it will be only the second human disease ever to be wiped out after smallpox."