Letter to the editor:- Phones for charity this Christmas.

 

DEAR EDITOR... "Hi, I'm Claire Sweeney, and I'd like to ask you to help a very worthwhile charity over Christmas - in a very simple way. If you get a new mobile phone for Christmas, please think about recycling your old one on behalf of the Arthritis Research Campaign (arc).

I'd also like to encourage people at work or college to collect colleagues' phones and send them in - twenty phones will raise £100 for the charity's vital research programme.

When I learnt that more than 7 million adults suffer from arthritis, and around 12,000 children are affected, I was amazed. Like many people I thought arthritis was just something that came with old age. The Arthritis Research Campaign (arc) raises funds in all sorts of ways and mobile phone recycling is such a cool way of doing it. Around 15 million phones get changed every year in the UK and about 70% can be recycled. This Christmas loads of phones will be changed and the old ones probably put on a shelf. We want them donated to help raise money for arthritis research.

I need people to act now and help find the cure for this dreadful, crippling condition. Anyone can collect, whether at work, college, their club or pub. Besides raising money it helps the environment, and arc's partnership with Fonebak means that sending phones in is easy, either by freepost envelope or container.

You can visit http://www.arc.org.uk/help_us/phones.asp or phone 01246 541106 (24 hrs)." 

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Letters to Editor:- "Only Angels Need Apply" 

DEAR EDITOR....

"Whilst sitting down and researching the origins of the classical poets, I accidentally came across a poet by the name of Phil Cooper.

Here was a man who for the past nineteen years has put on workshops through out the country. These workshops where designed to show and help children know and understand the dangers of using drugs. The amazing thing was that he could actually get through and that they in turn could relate to him. He also sets up work shops for adults and the parents.

Phil travels all over the country and has set up his workshops in schools such as Wolverhampton Grammar and Highgate Junior School. Many more as well he probably travels up to 30/40,000 miles each year.

His poetry is spell binding, electrifying and hold your attention from start to finish, his workshops are full of drama and he never fails to get through to the children about the dangers of taking drugs today.

What I find so sad though is the lack of recognition he has been given especially by the town he comes from. I suppose that, the subject of drugs is still one which parents and schools would prefer to ignore, sadly at their own peril let it be said. The local papers here show no interest in anything that detracts from the side of Southport they prefer to portray. One of the idyllic holiday resort with so much to offer such as the air show, flower show, fireworks displays to music and the Floral Hall attractions which are usually second rate or over the hill celebrities. Very rarely something I would personally like to watch or see, in fact the amateur theatre of the town is better than anything produced by the tourist minister or whatever title he enjoys these days.

I had to write this note, because I would love to see just a little recognition for a man who has given so much of his life in the battle against drugs, who has taken beatings and had threats against his life if he continued. All this he has endured, ignored, and carried on. Sometimes you wonder whether or not he feels it is worth it. 

I have been lucky enough to obtain one of his books "Only Angels Need Apply" I have found his work to be fascinating I only wish I could obtain more of his work."   Yours sincerely  G G Spencer of Southport.

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