Tag: letters

Letters: Nominate your Heart Hero

Dear Editor,

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) will host its third national Heart Hero Awards ceremony this year.

Our event last year was a fantastic and emotional night which celebrated winners and nominees from different walks of life from across Scotland and the rest of the UK. They ranged from inspirational children to remarkable fundraisers and heroic individuals who stepped up to save the life of a stranger using CPR.

We know there are many more unsung Heart Heroes out there and we want to shine a light on their selfless achievements. This will help the BHF raise awareness of the need for continued funding to bring new hope to the 700,000 people in Scotland who are living with conditions such as stroke, coronary heart disease, vascular dementia and diabetes.

That’s why we are calling on your readers to make a valuable nomination for the Heart Hero Awards 2020.

A ‘Heart Hero’ can be anyone from a nurse or doctor working in the field of heart disease to a young person with heart disease that has shown incredible courage and determination. Those shortlisted will be invited to a glitzy awards ceremony in London in September, when the winners will be announced.

There are three categories open for public nominations: My Healthcare Hero, Inspiration and the Young Heart Hero Award (under 18). To find out more about the categories or to make a nomination, visit www.bhf.org.uk/heartheroes

Entries close on Saturday 29 February – we wish everyone the best of luck with their entries!

Yours sincerely,

James Jopling
Head of BHF Scotland

Letters: New Year, New You

Dear Editor

I’d like to invite your readers to make a New Year’s resolution to help us fight back against the devastation of meningitis in 2020 by joining our New Year New You campaign.

I know only too well the misery meningitis can bring. I was just 16 when I contracted bacterial meningitis, which left me seriously ill in hospital. Thankfully, I made a good recovery but others are not so fortunate.

Now, we’re inviting everyone to join us and sign up for a Meningitis Now challenge or community event as part of our New Year New You campaign. We have lots to choose from, to suit all levels of fitness and interest, including treks, cycles and runs, in this country and abroad.

All the details are on our website at https://www.meningitisnow.org/support-us/news-centre/news-stories/new-year-new-you/

The serious point is that by doing so not only will you be getting in shape and achieving your personal goals but you will be making a real difference to those at risk of meningitis and those whose lives have already been changed forever because of it.

Money raised will help to fund preventative research, raise awareness and support those affected by the disease through Meningitis Now’s unique range of services.

Please join us if you can in 2020 – together we can make a difference and fight back against meningitis.

Thank you

Seema Jaswal

Television presenter and Meningitis Now Ambassador

Letters: People’s Postcode Lottery players raise £2.2m for cats

Dear Editor,

I would like to thank players of People’s Postcode Lottery, who have raised over £2.2 million for Cats Protection to date.

This has helped us find loving new homes for more cats throughout England, Scotland and Wales by funding essential Cat Care Assistant and Volunteer Team Leaders roles.

Players will be further supporting our homing work in 2020 by funding two behaviour posts, which provide advice and support to our branches and centres, and providing 10,000 microchips, helping to ensure that every cat leaves our care with a safe and permanent means of identification.

We were also delighted to be included in the recent TV advert announcing that People’s Postcode Lottery players have now raised over £500 million for charities and good causes, which starred two kittens from one of our centres.

I’m happy to report that both kittens have since found loving homes and have settled in well with their new families.

Anyone wishing to adopt a cat or support Cats Protection can find out more at www.cats.org.uk

Kind regards,

Mark Beazley, Cats Protection’s Director of Operations

Letters: Support the M.E. study

Dear Editor

Many of your readers will know at least one of the 250,000 children and adults in the UK with myalgic encephalomyelitis (M.E.), also diagnosed as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS, or M.E./CFS) – though they may not see the devastating toll this serious neurological condition can take. Continue reading Letters: Support the M.E. study

Letters: An overhaul of Westminster politics is long overdue

For all the divisions on display in this election campaign, there’s one point nearly all voters agree on: the desperate need for reform in Westminster.

Yet despite many parties commenting on the need for change in their manifestos, the issue of political reform has been dangerously absent from the campaign trail.

This radio silence is indefensible when polling for the Electoral Reform Society shows 85% of people feel that politics isn’t working, and 80% feel they have little or no influence on decision-making today. With public faith this low our politicians cannot afford to stay silent.

The signs of democratic decay are all around us – from an electoral system that wastes votes on an industrial scale, to the private members’ club that is the unelected House of Lords. This year we’ve seen our parliament lunge from crisis to crisis.

This election is a watershed moment for our democracy – inaction is not an option. Today we are calling for leaders to make the issue of updating and transforming Westminster front and centre, as part of #DemocracyDay.

We are asking them all to commit to a constitutional convention involving citizens, to set out how to reform Westminster after the election.

There is a high degree of cross-party unity around issues like updating Britain’s analogue-age campaign rules, spreading power outside of London and reining in our crumbling constitution.

With trust in politics at record lows, voters want to see parties open up about how to overhaul Westminster. Today is an opportunity to do just that. It is time for all parties to present their proposals with pride and passion.

Let’s start to build a better politics.

Willie Sullivan Electoral Reform Society
Ruth Lister Compass
Klina Jordan and Joe Sousek Make Votes Matter
Frances Foley Citizens Convention UK
Alexandra Runswick Unlock Democracy
Neal Lawson Up To Us
Anthony Barnett OpenDemocracy
Jennifer Nadel Compassion In Politics
Matteo Bergamini Shout Out UK
Tabitha Morton More United
Richard Murphy Professor of International Political Economy, City, University of London
Heidi Allen and Peter Dunphy Unite to Remain
Ed Dowker Represent.me
Mark Cridge mySociety
Richard Tunnicliffe and Sue Ellar Represent Us
Dimitri Scarlato the 3million
Paul Thistlethwaite XR Future Democracy Hub
Indra Adnan The Alternative
Andrew Pendleton New Economics Foundation
John Doolan and Paul Blomfield Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform
Keith Sharp Liberal Democrats for Electoral Reform
Frances Scott 50:50 Parliament
Jon Christensen Tax Justice Network

Letters: The Loneliest Cancer

Dear Editor

Imagine being diagnosed with a cancer that no-one has heard of, that even your doctor might never have seen before.  This is the case for over 5,300 people in the UK diagnosed with sarcoma every year. 

This is a tenth of those found with breast cancer, meaning that those diagnosed with sarcoma might never meet someone who shares the same type as them; in many ways, sarcoma is the loneliest cancer.

Sarcomas are tumours that develop in the body’s soft tissue or bones and they can appear in almost any part of the body.

I am all too aware of the devastating impact of sarcoma as my close friend and mentor Simon Mellows tragically died of the disease.  He was a constant inspiration to me and was instrumental in my journey from running my first marathon to becoming the world record-holder for leg amputees and 200m Paralympic champion.

As patron of Sarcoma UK, I am supporting the launch of a new report which I hope goes some way to raising awareness among the general public and healthcare professionals of the condition and silent symptoms which can lead to late or misdiagnosis, often with heart-breaking consequences.  Indeed, only 55% sarcoma patients survive for five or more years after diagnosis.

With greater general awareness, diagnosis could be quicker, treatment could be more effective and funding for pioneering research could be increased. Lives in the UK could genuinely be saved and at the very least cut the suffering caused by this rare, aggressive and often cruel cancer.

If you want more information on our new report or symptoms of sarcoma visit: sarcoma.org.uk.

 

 

Richard Whitehead MBE

Paralympian & Patron of Sarcoma UK

Letters: It’s time to share the wealth

Dear Editor

When you consider the vast array of skills developedand used every day by working people in all walks of life; it is truly amazing.

We all rely on the skills of others in so many ways.

Sometimes we forget that it is people like us who are providing all the goods and services that we take for granted. It is the ordinary working people who, with their skill and compassion, make life possible for everyone.

It is the same 99% of the peoplewho create, clean, repair and care for us that also generate the wealth, but have little control over. The ownership of that wealth has now become the property of others.

The workers who created the wealth now find themselves with no say in how it should be invested or distributed, and low pay and unfairness continues.

The workers who created the wealth now find themselves with no say in how it should be invested or distributed and low pay and unfairness continues.

The wealth created by the 99% now belongs to the few. It is time that this historic confidence trick is challenged and all workers are awarded, and involved in, who benefits from our national wealth.

A. Delahoy

Silverknowes Gardens

Letters: Help with M.E.

Dear Editor

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E., sometimes diagnosed as chronic fatigue syndrome) is a fluctuating, neurological condition that can severely affect someone’s ability to live and work.

Difficulties in diagnosing it can leave people searching for answers about how to manage. The free Mentor M.E. project can help.

Being a parent, coping with work, managing well-being, feeling isolated, losing contact with friends, and challenging misconceptions about this invisible illness are all topics our mentors have supported mentees with.

If you have M.E., or care for someone who does, get in touch to find out how we can help.

Avril McLean

Scotland Project Coordinator, Action for M.E.

Tel: 07753 247099

Email: avril@actionforme.org.uk

www.actionforme.org.uk/mentorME