IF THE person highlighted on your front page (David Gill, April 10 brain operation funding denied - see also page 39 this week) had waited for health bosses to fund his operation in the USA he would have waited as many more have before him with the inevitable conclusion.
He would probably have joined the Manchester broadcaster, Anthony Wilson, with his struggle to get a life- prolonging drug; he lost that struggle and sadly lost his life.
We also remember the brave, courageous lady who cycled, swam and ran probabl
y thousands of miles to raise, I believe, something in the region of £2million pounds for Cancer Research; sadly she too lost that battle.
Why don't these people receive those life-prolonging drugs and the proper treatment in their localities? Probably because the public purse that should be in place to eradicate this terrible blight on human life is spent on other less worthy and totally futile things.
So as a taxpayer and a pensioner on a fixed income I'm beginning to wonder what is really going on in this country and where that necessary finance is going. It would appear to me that there is a higher echelon of individuals who have the God-given right to demand and receive vast salaries, gold-plated pensions and expenses without any consideration for the financial situation of the country and with total disregard for those in a less fortunate position in society.
At the end of the day is it not the case that it is the public purse, in one form or another, that fund these extortionately high salaries, and ordinary people who pay, out of their own pockets, for such things as the utility companies and who have the final sacrifices of seeing their incomes and pensions whittled away, and in some cases losing their roof over their heads, and even then expected to dig deeper and fund higher bills of all forms?
Therefore isn't time for some transparency as to who is receiving those high incomes supplemented by huge expenses and isn't it time for some consideration and respect for those who actually fund the expense of those lifestyles, (which most of us can only dream of) or are the untouchable and unapproachable to be allowed to carry on in the way to which they have become accustomed?
Somewhere along the line this country's priorities have gone terribly awry!
R Hallam
School Road
Peak Dale
The full article contains 411 words and appears in Buxton Advertiser newspaper.
