AN MP is to press the Government for cash to help the army of respiratory disease sufferers in a part of the region.

The Breathe Easy support group is presenting Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP Ashok Kumar with a petition calling for more funding from the Department of Health for pulmonary rehabilitation and after care services.

The petition is being presented to the MP by Middlesbrough GP Dr Brian Corbett.

The MP said: "I have had a long association with Breathe Easy, having visited their clinic and met the dedicated team running the organisation on a number of past occasions.

"They do valuable work for people suffering from lung related problems - always a problem in older industrial areas like Teesside - and I support them in their campaigning work.''

He added: "I will make sure their petition is handed directly to senior health ministers with a plea that they take seriously the issue of continued funding to see that such organisations can continue to offer the highly personal one-to-one support that they excel at."