24/05/05

Willowburn Hospice in Derwentside has had four beds for 13 years and does provide in- patient hospice care for patients of Derwentside. We have also provided in patient hospice care for patients from Durham, 150 or so over the last year.

We are planning our own refurbishment and extension and have every intention of continuing to provide hospice care for the patients of Derwentside for the forseeable future. We do have funding guaranteed by Derwentside PCT for Willowburn for the future.

We also run a hospice at home service which has covered Durham, Chester-le-Street and Derwentside for the last five years. The Durham and Chester end is about to be taken over by the PCT, but we intend to continue running it in Derwentside for as long as we can obtain funding.

It is perfectly true that patients requiring more complicated care have to leave North Durham to go to one of the bigger hospices in Newcastle or Sunderland and that element of care for Derwentside is intended to be carried out in future in St Cuthbert's new beds.

Willowburn is continuing to provide these services. I would be very grateful if you could draw this to the attention of your readers. - Dr PJL Quigley, Willowburn Hospice, Derwentside.

HARD TIMES

While I'd feel dead at ease in columnist Mike Amos's (Echo, May 18) presence, I'm not so sure how I would feel alongside The Times columnist (now retired) Simon Jenkins: London ain't the least bit parochial, unlike say, Darlington.

The thing is that The Times and The Northern Echo aren't aimed at the same market. And how, I wonder, would Mike Amos fare as a columnist for The Times, itself more presitigious (when folded under the arm) than this newspaper? Which isn't meant as an insult to the readership; which includes myself, a letters columnist.

Most certainly Mike Amos would need to adjust to The Times's manifestly upmarket readership. Which would really take some adjustment, particularly after writing in The Northern Echo - pretty much parochially - for many years. - Alfred H Lister, Guisborough.

WHO DOES WHAT?

My first contribution to the Labour Party was in January, 1938. Affiliation through the NUR, then, after the war, as an individual member.

Why are so many people confused and either don't vote or change their allegiance?

The Tories and many commentators claim that Tony Blair and New Labour have stolen their ground. Nye Bevan said: "History is important for its 'verbs' not its 'nouns'". If this is correct it means there is no need for the Tory Party as their work is already being done.

Is the fight now not who does what but who gets lucrative jobs for doing it? - Walter Nunn, Shildon.

CASUALTIES OF WAR

THERE is no known record of anyone writing to Mr Churchill during the whole of the six years of war, blaming him for the death of their loved ones.

The reason being that when you signed on you knew that you had accepted that you may not survive the time period.

Current servicemen in their heart of hearts have no doubts about the reality. So to complain, and try to apportion blame for the death of a loved one committed to serve, is a sure way to destroy the value of a great sacrifice made.

During the war Conscientious Objectors had their start in life before their fighting contemporaries came home or were killed in action.

One MP thinks she is Queen Victoria telling her Prime Minister where to go - she is not amused, and neither are we.

The last of the few, still alive, stand firm and remember the great sacrifices, regretting the loss of any life in war.

Country is greater than party. - Bill Luke, Easingwold.

STAN LONG

I WOULD just like to pay a personal tribute to the much loved athletics coach Stan Long who sadly passed away at the weekend.

I first met Stan on a bus journey to Brussels for an international cross country meeting. Stan was with a group of young athletes whom he trained, but entertained the whole bus with a selection of quizzes and competitions, handing out prizes from his holdall as if he were Father Christmas.

I shared a room with him over the weekend and learned a lot about him, his athletics and his coaching, and his charm and kindness left an indelible impression on me.

After that, whether on a muddy cross-country course, on a track or at a meeting, Stan would always take the time to say hello and have a chat, as he did with everyone he knew and they were many, both young and old.

He was a charming man with all the right qualities to be a coach: warm, patient, kind, approachable and vastly knowledgeable.

I will miss his smiling face but his legacy will be the people he leaves behind, on whom he has made a lasting impression and athletics will be the poorer for his passing. - Robin Rutherford, Darlington Harriers.

RUSSIAN INVASION

In reply to Alfred Lister's letter (HAS, May 12), President Bush was referring to Russia's invasion and occupation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

This was carried out in 1939 and can only be understood if Stalin was expecting a German invasion. At the time, Germany and Russia were allies, and Russia not only stabbed Poland in the back when she was already desperately defending herself against Germany, but made a determined effort to wipe out professional Poles who might have organised resistance against her.

When the war was over, Russia made no attempt to leave the countries she had occupied. Stalin's Russia was almost as evil as Hitler's Germany. The bravery and sacrifice of ordinary patriotic Russian people cannot change that fact. - Michael Green, Annfield Plain.

OUT OF CONTROL

HOOLIGANISM has been a major concern for many years amongst those people whose lives have been made unbearable by the mayhem caused by out-of-control yobs.

When ordinary citizens have been driven to the point of desperation and taken the law into their own hands, it has been they who have suffered punishment whilst the yobs have walked away.

Now that the Government has decided to do something about tackling the problems of hooliganism, there are already signs that some people are afraid of confrontation.

They talk of the dangers of branding and alienating a whole generation. They forget that hooligans thrive on the status they have achieved and the power they have to disrupt lives and to run riot.

Do we feel compassion for burglars, muggers and child murderers? Hooliganism will never be stamped out if the do-gooders get their way. - D Brearley, Middlesbrough.