SIR – I read the story in last Wednesday’s paper about the excellent care received by Martin Neath in St Richard’s Hospice. I would also like to echo his views.
My mum Jane Morris was also in St Richard’s for a month before she unfortunately passed away last month.
Whilst in the hospice the care that she received from all the staff there was outstanding.They really cannot do enough for the patients, and the facilities offered there including family support is excellent
We have calculated that just for the month mum was in there her care would have cost approx £13,000, and that is just for one patient for one month. We must remember it is a charity funded organisation, so needs our help, so I would urge people to support them in many ways possible such as St Richards shops, hospice lottery and the excellent justgiving.co.uk/strichards website where it is possible to set up an individual fund in memory of a particular patient as we have done for mum. 
Let’s keep supporting this fantastic organisation and make more patients and their families lives more enjoyable during a difficult time.
DARREN MORRIS
Droitwich


Get right information on medical research
SIR – In recent issues of the Worcester News there have been several articles about good people fundraising for various charities connected with health and medical research.
Everybody wants to see medical progress, but an increasing number of people are refraining from donating to such charities, because they fear their money will be used to fund animal experiments.
Some of these charities do fund animal tests, but many do not, so it is possible for people to donate to health and research charities without fear that their money will be used to harm animals.
Instead of not giving to any health charities, members of the public can find out whether or not such charities fund animal experiments by consulting a list put together by animal protection group Animal Aid. 
PETER TALBOT
Worcester

It’s easier to just put the blame on others 
SIR – Well, Peter Nielsen had, earlier, written of his expectation of how N Taylor would respond to his daring to disagree with the narrow-minded, mean-spirited, stuff which is the latter’s trade-mark, and Mr Taylor (Letters, 16.10.15) did not disappoint. It is most revealing how the right-wing anti-everythings react when their simple certainties be challenged – and in the robust terms about which they habitually moan when similar language, real or imagined, is used by anyone else.
Is it not just possible that the reason why our roads are busy is that our road-system is inadequate, and/or that we love road-transport too much? Moreover, although, as a rich nation, we could afford more homes and education and health services, we choose, democratically, not to do so. It is, of course, always much easier to blame others for shortfalls and pressures.
A bigger backdrop is climate change and the globe’s rapidly rising human population, which puts increasing pressure on water, food and conventional fuel resources. Global migration will likely become a larger feature of human existence, and none of MrTaylor’s nostrums do anything to address this. Indeed, he has more than a bit of a cheek when he asks what others have ever done to solve these problems. Once again, the boot’s on the other one: all he does is write rude and angry diatribes condemning others, never showing the humility of admitting that he is as much a part of the society that has created the world that we leave to our children as the rest of us, everywhere. Mr Taylor, I would suggest, should raise his sights and start to contemplate the international (rather than the narrow-national) picture. There is, however, a caveat: it’s just a bit more difficult.
DAVID BARLOW
Worcester

Council should have opposed ban for bees
SIR – You reported that the Conservative Worcestershire County Council aspires to be a landmark county for the protection of bees. Very laudable you might think were it not for the fact that in July, the conservative government lifted the ban on the use of neonicotinoid pesticides.    The government, yet again, bowed to the pressure of the NFU in contradiction to the advice given by its own scientific advisers.  Overwhelming evidence that these pesticides have contributed to the decline in bees and other pollinators led the EU to ban them in 2013.
Our county council proposes to act to protect bees within its own jurisdiction: highways, countryside centres and schools.   If the county council were serious, they would have joined other protestors earlier this year and publicly urged the government to retain the ban on neonicotinoid pesticides.     
ANNA FRANKEL
Worcester

People should be free to leave the country
SIR – Recently it was announced that UK officials were trying to stop a family leaving the UK for Syria. This country gives citizens freedom of choice and if someone wishes to leave for they should be allowed. 
When they choose to go to a country such as Syria then they should be allowed to do so but on the understanding that they will have their British citizenship revoked and all benefits they receive from the state stopped in addition to never being allowed back into the UK.
R KNIGHT
Newport, Shropshire