Cuts will hit elderly patients

I FEEL I ought to write to your newspaper to express my view about the North Yorkshire County Councils’ dilemma over the cost of keeping open the Thirsk Alzheimer’s Day Care Centre.

The Government’s cutbacks will mean that the patients will move to Northallerton or Easingwold. It will mean that there will not be a day centre for patients in my area.

What will it mean for me, aged 83, caring for a husband, 84, with Alzheimer’s? Thirsk Day Centre with its excellent team, built up over years, will move 10 miles one way or eight miles the other way. It will deprive my husband of the day care he needs and me the contact and support from professional staff and a few hours of respite from caring 24 hours a day.

How can we let this happen?

Bigger dinosaur

From: Brian Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

JAYNE Dowle asks if she is alone in being a “half-dinosaur” (Yorkshire Post, December 12). Maybe, but she is in the enviable position of being fully conversant with information technology while reserving a good many tasks she enjoys doing in the traditional way.

I am a full dinosaur on the verge of extinction. My IT skills extend no further than e-mailing this letter: if I make a mistake, my wife will rescue me. Yet I see people of my age (75) and older who are masters of the smart phone. I see illiterate youngsters who can tell me when the next bus is due at the touch of an index-finger.

Viking muddle

From: Ron Farley, Croftway, Camblesforth, Selby.

IN the ninth century AD, England was invaded by the Danes. For some reason, we now call them Vikings, especially in this area.

The word “Viking” describes an activity rather than a people. To “go viking” meant to go raiding. The horned helmet was also fanciful imagery. After all, what sensible warrior would wear something with prominent protuberances, enabling an enemy to knock the helmet off!