A member of Douglas Rotary Club has been honoured for a second time with an award for outstanding charitable work.
Kevin Kneen has now been recognised not once but twice for his support for the club’s End Polio Now campaign by being awarded the Paul Harris Fellowship.
Mr Kneen said the second award had come as a complete surprise: ‘I was totally taken aback when given a second medal. I was recognised as a Paul Harris Fellow a few years ago, again linked to my work on Polio and the Rotary global project to eradicate it, but to get a second medal is really quite amazing.’
Over the past four years, thanks to Mr Kneen’s efforts, more than £30,000 has been raised with the help of the island community.
Thanks to this money, more than 150,000 children have been immunised against the disease which causes paralysis which in many cases can prove permanent.
As well as speaking to more than 6,000 school children around the island, members of the club have also worked closely with the government’s international development committee in securing additional funding of £90,000 over three years.
The cost of immunising each child is 50 pence and each sum raised by Rotary is matched two for one by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Paul Harris award is the highest honour a club can bestow for service to the community. This is the first time the club has awarded two medals since it formed in 1924. Paul Harris founded Rotary in 1905.