DEAR EDITOR - We would like it to be known that we have every admiration and gratitude for the doctors at Worcester Royal Hospital, also a great team of nurses.

They all worked really hard on ward Avon 2 to keep my 80-year-old mother in law on this earth after she suffered an acute chest infection.

She showed progress, then had a relapse and nearly died.

Doctors and nurses fought really hard to keep her alive.

They said if she didn't respond to treatment, then there was nothing more they could do - other than put her on a machine which would be breathing for her.

Without their professionalism and tender loving care - as well as her family's support, we feel sure that she wouldn't have survived this illness.

There was one thing that really did surprise me whenever we visited the hospital - and that was the number of patients with plastered arms, legs and other illnesses, even people in wheel chairs and with intravenous drips, who were carried out of hospital so that they could have that dreaded cancer stick - commonly known as a cigarette.

These people are wilfully destroying their lungs and hearts.

Smoking can also cause loss of limbs after an operation.

I personally feel that any smoker should not be treated on the NHS and should be made to pay for private health care, as theirs is wilful damage to their health.

What my mother in law would do to be able to breathe properly again!

She has made a good recovery after five weeks in hospital and we now have her back home with us.

We know she's never going to get 100 per cent better - but a big thank you again to the doctors and nurses, and to the consultant and doctor who wrote in big letters "marvellous recovery" on her hospital notes.

M and J White,

Droitwich Spa.

(address witheld)