I AM really pleased to see that Yvonne Hossack is standing for Parliament in Bury as an Independent candidate.

She is a woman of enormous skill, courage and integrity and will, I am sure, work very hard to represent the interests of the constituents of Bury South, cutting through the spin of the three major parties.

I speak from personal experience. Yvonne Hossack, in her role as a public law solicitor, represented my mother, Mrs Clara Dudley, who suffered a major stroke when the residential care home where she lived in Hastings, East

Sussex, closed against the wishes of all the centre users, relatives and staff.

My mother, aged 86, was so desperate to stop her beloved care home from closing that she went to London in her wheelchair to present a 4,000-strong petition and personal letter to Tony Blair. My mother, who believed in democracy, thought that this would make a difference. It didn't.

Through her work, Yvonne is aware of the real effects of this Government's policies on the lives of the elderly and vulnerable. She is aware that none of the three major parties is interested in these issues.

Yvonne has campaigned to save services for the elderly and disabled in Bury and has pursued her work at great personal cost; she is persistent and extremely conscientious.

She would not hesitate to speak out against injustice and would make an exceptionally good Member of Parliament.

NORMA DUDLEY