Pupils are planning to turn Penryn purple by planting crocuses in the town's memorial gardens ready for next spring.

Children from Penryn Primary Academy and Penryn College were digging in the bulbs as part of the college Interact Club's Purple4Polio campaign, which is raising money and awareness for the fight against polio.

The Interact Club, a section of the Rotary Club for schoolchildren, launched the campaign last month, and has been selling crocus bulbs to raise funds. For every ten bulbs sold, the children will be planting another ten in Penryn or Falmouth, or in the school's own garden.

And for every pound raised by the campaign, another two will be donated to the cause by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, trebling the amount of money that goes to eradicating polio.

Community engagement officer Jacqui Owen said: "We have been asked to help plant the Purple for Polio crocuses. We have been doing this throughout Falmouth and now in Penryn.

"It's really important that people are aware of the work the Rotary Club have done, and it's great for the children to be involved in the community."

Jim Henderson of the Penryn Rotary Club added: "It's fantastic, the money they have raised already, they have sold so many bulbs. It's terrific.

"And it's going on until February, when they are going to have their cake bake and other fundraisers."

Polio is an infectious virus which can cause paralysis, and even death, but since a vaccine was introduced in the 1950s it has been eradicated in Europe and the Americas, and in 2015 only two countries were still reporting wild cases of polio.

Rotary International has been a key organisation in the fight against polio, with the current Purple4Polio campaign taking its name from the fact that children in developing countries have their thumbs marked with purple ink to show when they have been vaccinated.