Read this before you rot in hell
I was awakened early this morning by one of my children's nurses, telling me we had had a break-in. My children are both disabled and 24 hour dependent.
It appears that two pieces of scum broke in through a rear window and ransacked the house for cash – this while my children were asleep in their beds only yards away.
What is most sickening is the fact that they took my children's birthday money, given by their grandmother, before being disturbed and scarpering.
The police have been but there is little chance of success, I suspect, although I genuinely believe they will do their best.
I don't care about the money itself – it's the violation of our home and the fact that people can stoop so low as to steal from disabled children.
I hope you print this story and that these thieves will read it before they rot in hell.
Colin Mclean, via email

Need for Health Service reform
I understand from press reports that government ministers are preparing to allow patients to pay for top-up drugs that will extend their lives, while continuing to be treated on the NHS.
After all the recent publicity (about a number of cancer patients dying after they were told they were not entitled to continue with their NHS treatment if paying privately for drugs which weren't generally available on the health service) I for one welcome this news, and hope it comes about.
But I do understand the dilemma of the Health Secretary Alan Johnson and his colleagues who fear that a two-tier NHS will be the result.
Obviously, there is the potential here for wealthier people to be able to extend their lives while people who have no chance of forking out thousands of pounds for top-up drugs, will just have to resign themselves to their fate.
The answer, difficult thought it will be, is to push through some real health service reforms, such a cutting down on bureaucracy and redirecting as much cash as possible into the drugs budget.
This might enable the decision-makers at the National Institute for Clinical Excellence to approve more of these life-extending drugs for general prescription.
Brian Ramsdale, via email

Scrap dealers on alert for railings?
I was pleased to read the pledge from Councillor Hudson to get the railings around the Preston cenotaph replaced as soon as possible and the damage made good.
It was an appalling act of theft at a memorial dedicated to local men and women who gave their lives during wartime.
These railings had been in place since 1926 before the thieves struck in the dead of night.
Unless these people are going to advertise their crimes by suddenly improving the front of their own homes, the only possible reason for taking them was to weigh them in as scrap metal.
This means that some scrap metal dealer somewhere is bound to be suspicious as and when he's offered them.
Even the dodgiest dealer would surely do his duty and tell the police, given the circumstances of this disgraceful slight on the bravest of the brave.
Name and address supplied

Who could do better as PM?
Gordon Brown will no doubt be tempting the more cynical of your correspondents to put pen to paper over his claim at the Labour conference in Manchester to be the right man to lead Britain out of the present economic crisis.
He helped us get into it in the first place, they will say.
Maybe he has made mistakes, such as abolishing the 10p rate of income tax, but it must be obvious to most reasonable people that Britain is suffering from global events over which Mr Brown had no control.
And to those who want to see the back of him, who – in the current Cabinet – could do any better?
As for the other side, are we really in such a pickle as to want Dave in charge?
Name and address supplied

Time to save
energy and money
We are due to move our clocks back one hour very shortly but perhaps it would be a good
idea to move them forward one hour and then we would save both energy and money.
I believe the Government did something similar during the Second World War.
Frank Maher,
Hawthorn Crescent, Lea

Could you face the G4 Challenge?
Are you up for a challenge while helping to raise £1m for vulnerable people in crisis?
If so, there is still just time to enter the Land Rover G4 Challenge, the adventure of a lifetime that combines off-road driving with kayaking, mountain biking, abseiling, climbing and orienteering across some of the most remote and extreme terrain in the world.
The selection process is underway to choose one man and one woman to represent the UK in the competition. They will compete against 17 other countries over the three-week final in Mongolia next year when the winners will be given a Land Rover to donate to their country's Red Cross or Red Crescent Society.
Entries must be received before September 30. Simply log on to: www.landroverg4challenge.com.
Josh Lewsey, via email

GET IN TOUCH
To all St Cuthbert Mayne High School leavers of 1988, it is our 20-year school reunion this year. Yes, we really are that old! So, a few of us have got together to arrange things.The venue is Fulwood and Broughton Cricket Club on Garstang Road, Fulwood on Saturday November 8 starting at 7.30 p.m..
Tickets are£7.50 to cover the cost of the venue and DJ, with any surplus funds being donated to our old school.
Please email Lynne Battersby or Elaine Pomfret to order your ticket (contact details below) and post your cheques, payable to Dr Lynne Green & Elaine Pomfret, with your address details and we will send your ticket to you. If you have any old school pictures please email or post them to us for the slideshow on the night. Fifty people are on the guest list already.
Lynne Green (Battersby)
3 Linksfield, Fulwood, Preston PR2 3RW
lynnemariegreen@yahoo.co.uk or elainepom@o2.co.uk

Thanks a lot ref!
I answered the call to help boost the gate at Deepdale for the match against Wolves, then had to miss the last 20 minutes when the referee delayed the start as I'd promised the wife she could have the car!
By then, though, it was quite a relief . . .
Name and address supplied

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