MAY I thank all the people who made anonymous donations to the local Samaritans during 1998.

It costs more than £20,000 to run the Samaritans of Pendle, Burnley and Rossendale and with no paid staff, the 120 volunteers, who dealt with 27,000 calls during the last 12 months, are responsible for raising their own funds.

We are proud of our cost-effectiveness, where each emergency call costs less than £1 and also extremely grateful to all those who have supported us during 1988.

Without the help of these individuals and organisations we would be unable to offer the 24-hour Samaritans service to those in our community who find their lives in such turmoil that, often, suicide is seen as an alternative to living.

LARRY COULSTON (Director, The Samaritans of Pendle, Burnley and Rossendale), Market Square, Nelson.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.