Readers' letters

With the NHS almost at the point of collapse, due to severe financial losses, I find it appalling that one of the previous premier David Cameron’s past schemes, the Troubled Families project, has squandered around £900m supposedly helping around 120,000 households in alleviating unemployment, truancy and a myriad of social problems, with only a fraction of the 120,000 households experiencing any improvement in their life chances at all.

Such monumental waste arising from Cameron’s vanity should never have been expended on such folly. Instead the money should have been diverted to the hard-pressed NHS to improve the lives of the majority.

Similarly, Theresa May should implement EU withdrawal quickly, thereby enabling the alleged £340m saved weekly from the EU to be spent on the NHS.

Or was this figure merely plucked out of the air by those campaigning to leave the EU in the June referendum?

Savings will however be made when we leave the EU and should therefore be diverted to the NHS, and sooner rather than later.

Other large scale expenditure on vain pet projects, like HS2, should be scaled back, with money saved diverted to regenerating Britain’s manufacturing industry as this would benefit the many rather than the few.

British workers, especially the young, would be able to work in skilled employment in industries such as chemicals, steel and the production of both white goods and high technology products, thereby reducing the billions spent on the importation of these products.

Dr Glyn Powell

Address supplied

charity

Bag it – beat heart disease

I’m writing to thank your readers for taking part in the British Heart Foundation’s (BHF) Bag It. Beat It. campaign throughout September, helping to generate over one million bags of quality items nationwide for BHF shops and raise awareness of women and heart disease.

It’s so shocking to think that there are 3.5 million women living with cardiovascular disease in the UK and that heart and circulatory disease nearly kills more women than all cancers combined.

Thanks to the overwhelming support from local people, BHF shops across the North West have received an impressive 120,000 bags of unwanted items.

Every item donated and bag filled helps the BHF fund vital research and prevents more women suffering from and losing their lives to coronary heart disease, the UK’s single biggest killer.

I have personally experienced the devastation heart disease can bring to a family, having lost both my dad and granddad to heart disease.

I was also incredibly shocked to learn that 9,100 women in the North West die of heart and circulatory disease each year.

This is why I have supported the BHF’s latest campaign to help raise awareness and encourage people to Bag It. Beat it.

If you would still like to get involved, the BHF are always in need of donations and would love to receive your unwanted items such as clothing, shoes, books and toys anytime of the year.

They even offer a free collection service making donating completely hassle free.

To find out more about donating and the free collection service, please visit bhf.org.uk/shops.

Gemma Atkinson

Actress and 
BHF supporter