SHOPPERS were greeted with a chilling reminder of days gone by as part of a campaign to raise awareness of the battle against a crippling disease.

Sitting outside Barrow Town Hall, visitors were able to sit inside an iron lung – used in the 1940s as a way of keeping polio sufferers alive.

It served as a reminder of the disease and the work the Rotary Club have done to combat it.

Roger Frank, a past president of the Upper Eden Rotary Club, built the working medical ventilator from scratch in order to raise awareness of the continuing battle.

He said: “I thought about how to promote it and the dafter thing you do the easier it is.

“I tried to find one but they've almost all been scrapped.

“If you get in there you can't even scratch your nose or feed yourself.

“It's not a good life.”

The number of polio cases had fallen to just 74 worldwide in 2015, but the club's work isn't done yet.

Val Robinson, 67, foundation chairwoman of the Rotary Club of The Furness Peninsula said: “We're just trying to raise awareness. We're so close to getting polio eradicated but it's crazy money to do it.

“I think the majority of people are scared of the iron lung. You talk about it and people remember but they don't want to go inside.

“It's quite a strange sensation. You realise how vulnerable you are when you're there.

“I'm a healthy person so I can move my legs and arms but the people that were in there were totally helpless and couldn't do anything.”

Mr Frank said: “We've got to get rid of it. There's only been one case so far this year so we're getting there.

“There has to be no cases across the world for three years for it to be completely eradicated.

“It has been eliminated from the UK through immunisation, but the World Health Organisation said if we all stop immunisations now there would be 200,000 cases in the next 10 years. That could be your children. You're most prone to get it at four or five."

Since 1985, the club's "End Polio Now" campaign has raised £600m to combat the disease, and now have some famous backers.

Mr Frank said: “The Rotary Club has raised huge sums of money over the years and now the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are trebling donations. If you donate a pound, they'll give £2.”