SYLVIA Noble (Letters, June 26) is very loud in attacking medical research, but offers no solution on what we might use instead of animals to provide hope to people with serious illnesses such as cystic fibrosis, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's chorea and muscular dystrophy, among other life-threatening disorders.

I think she should tell us how she would replicate a beating heart, blood system, lungs, a central nervous system and the way these systems function together.

These are just some of the necessities required by medical researchers to find cures for serious illnesses.

If anybody thinks medical progress can continue without animal experiments then where are all the non-animal dependent treatments?

Medical research is a precious human right to which people with serious illnesses are entitled. It is their right to hope which the animal rights movement is sabotaging and it is time we made a stand against their bullying tactics. I am employed as a care assistant in a nursing home and, as much, as I love animals, I think people come first.

My own personal ambition is to see a cure or treatment found for a rare genetic disease called Friedreich's attaxia.

Increasing understanding of this terrible affliction which condemns once apparently healthy children to life in a wheelchair relies on some humane animal experimentation.

Seriously Ill for Medical Research (SIMR) is a patients' group, for further information please write to SIMR, PO Box 504, Dunstable, Bedfordshire LU6 2LU.

TOM BROMLEY (address supplied)

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