23/03/2005

We did it to gain our distance certificates but, more importantly, to raise money for the Cornel Romanian Rehabilitation Charity Trust to build an amputee rehabilitation centre in Romania. We collected a massive £1,172 for Cornel Hrisca-Munn's worthy charity. Our swim took around two-and-a-half hours non-stop and we are indebted particularly to swimming coach, Heather Leighton, for verifying all 150 tiring lengths.

Thanks also to the generous parishioners of St John Fisher Church, Sedgefield, the staff of Carmel RC Technology College, Darlington, the Lyric Singers plus many other Sedgefield villagers, too numerous to mention and, of course, The Northern Echo and Advertiser newspapers for publicity.

The response was magnificent and beyond our wildest dreams. - Tim and Ciaran Jasper (aged 11 and 9), Sedgefield.

ALZHEIMER'S

GOOD luck to the Alzheimer's Society which is drawing attention to the impact of discrimination upon dementia sufferers and their carers (Echo, Mar 17).

This harrowing illness can devastate families; it is heartbreaking watching your loved one slowly lose their mind and be robbed of all their functions. As the illness progresses, sufferers of dementia are forced to rely on others to meet personal care needs and families play an important role.

The demands facing families are vast; eventually many are left with no choice but to ask for help. As if all this isn't painful enough, they then have to put up with the additional stress created by a system that will not recognise Alzheimer's as a terminal illness.

The upshot is that families are expected to cope with the indignity of having to pay for care, as if it was an optional extra; furthermore, in some cases - due to cost - they are denied medication that may go some way towards improving the quality of life for their loved one.

It is shameful that our Government is allowing this to happen. - Marie Gressmann, Esh Winning.

RELIGION AND POLITICS

YOUR article gives the impression that the leader of the Catholic Church for England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, (Echo, Mar 16) is saying that Catholics should vote Conservative to lower the abortion time limit. Anybody who believes this is very naive. The main issue of abortion should be based not on the number of weeks but on the humanity and development of the unborn baby.

At an election we are asked to think about the kind of world we want to live in. As Catholics, we are called to work for a world shaped by the Gospel of Christ. How you vote is a matter for the individual. Catholic social teaching is rooted in Scripture. In the teaching document Cherishing Life, published in 2004, the Bishops said: "Voting in general elections should seldom, if ever, be based on a single issue, because elections are based on a whole range of issues."

I think the main issues are marriage and the family, criminal justice, education, the global common good, refugees and migrants, jobs and employment. We are called to work for social transformation through love, compassion, peace, and justice in our homes, workplaces and the wider community.

In the light of this, I would ask if the Conservative Party could serve all of the people for the common good, not just respond to a single issue. - Coun Vince Crosby, Newton Aycliffe.

GORDON Brown nobly promises money for cathedrals, but his Government continues to encourage immorality and anti-family laws, round-the-clock drinking, gambling, abortion, gay marriage and bias against Christianity. However, any serious student of the Bible is expecting this and worse to come, but his future is guaranteed from the words of Jesus. Take time this Easter to reflect on the wonderful promises Jesus gave, for not one of them has failed yet. The political and religious leaders who crucified him for his teachings are still with us today but the flock of the Good Shepherd continues to grow. - W Mawston, Rushyford.

IMMIGRATION

I AGREE with Bob Jarrat (HAS, Mar 21) that the idea of a managed migration policy deserves a fair hearing, but we already have such a policy.

There are three main routes for immigrants - on work permits, through a family connection or as asylum seekers. Asylum seekers make up about a quarter of net immigration. The Government has introduced new measures to deter asylum seekers and to detect illegal immigrants. Asylum applications are decided according to very strict criteria, and refugees in genuine fear for their lives are often refused asylum. Illegal immigrants are regularly caught and deported.

Those who come here to work make a tremendous contribution to the economy, and generally take jobs for which indigenous recruits cannot be found.

A rational debate on these issues is essential, but those who advocate a drastic reduction in immigration must accept the consequences - a dramatic decline in economic growth and a poor standard of living for pensioners without the wealth that immigrants create, and the collapse of the NHS, at least without massive new investment. It costs £250,000 to train a doctor from scratch, but just £10,000 to prepare a foreign-trained doctor. - Pete Winstanley, Durham.

FOOD LABELLING

THE 'traffic lights' food warning labels are an excellent idea. It is quick and easy for anyone to establish if a food is healthy. With this knowledge a person can then make a more informed decision on what they are eating.

When food shopping most people don't have the time to read the back of packaging to find out the nutritional information. Some foods, particularly ready-made meals, sound healthy but are in fact unhealthy. - Gillian McGuigan, Darlington.

GLOBAL WARMING

I HAD a wry smile when reading the letter (HAS, Mar 11) from Councillor Barry Coppinger of Middlesbrough replying to Peter Mullen's article on climate change. One of the first acts of Coun Coppinger and members of the Youth Parliament might be to go to Redcar and pass a motion, a tidal one, ordering the sea to return the sand which it removed some years ago.

Perhaps they could be like Darlington council a few years ago, when it decided to make Darlington a nuclear-free zone. All went well until an atomic power station in Russia blew up and some particles arrived without warning in Cumbria.

The councillor thinks local authorities have a duty to prepare communities for climate change, but people have been acclimatising themselves for many years because we are part of the natural order and are aware of the seasons. When it is cold, hot drinks and thick clothing are necessary. Warm weather brings out the bathing costumes, shorts and ice cream.

This is a conflict between science and religion. After the first manned space flight, science came to the forefront in people's thinking with religion pushed into the background.

Urban terrorism operating through small effective groups claiming to be faith inspired has placed religion back on the agenda.

Caught in the middle are the quasi-religious groups determined to save us all, regardless of the expense to us and not to themselves.

Those who persistently claim to be saving planet Earth should remember the lines: "The sea in the darkness calls and calls/The tide rises and the tide falls." - Thomas Conlon, Spennymoor.