REGARDING your report 'Caring cop in line for top award' (LET, April 21), it is an honour to be nominated for the Whitbread Volunteer Action Awards, but I am concerned that I should be singled out of all the people who make the Blackburn and District branch of the Multiple Sclerosis Society such a success.
Everyone involved is a volunteer and we rely entirely on the generous financial and personal contributions made by so many local supporters.
One hundred per cent of the money donated goes to support our work for everyone with MS, not just the members, and we pass on as much as we can afford to national research projects.
Many of the people with MS in this area don't need us directly because, thankfully, MS does not seriously trouble them physically.
However, we believe our provision of transport and holidays provides an important welfare function for those most seriously affected and no plaudit can match the reward I enjoy when we take people out of their homes who would otherwise not get out. I have quite a high profile within the MS branch because I put my name to organisational things, but we rely entirely on our volunteer drivers, helpers, our own members, their relatives and their friends.
I have always regarded my involvement as a hobby and have only been able to contribute because of the wonderful support I have received from my family and by having the income and security from my employment.
I do not have a disability and I do not have to care for anyone with a disability. I see at first-hand how other people have to cope with such problems at home and it is I who ought to be nominating very many of them for awards for coping and caring in the face of present disability or an uncertain future.
I think I know most of the people who have nominated me. As you would expect, I live and work in an environment of crime, disorder, greed and selfishness and it is a privilege to spend so much of my time with such kind and appreciative people who deserve so much themselves.
STUART COATES, (vice chairman and transport officer, Blackburn and District branch, the Multiple Sclerosis Society), Longsight Road, Clayton-le-Dale.
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