PENSIONER Ken Platt praised the health workers who helped him cope with lung disease.

The 77-year-old was part of a group of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD] patients who met for a ten-week course delivered by East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust.

The course is run by nurses, healthy lifestyle co-ordinators and physiotherapists, teaching exercises to help manage their condition and giving advice about diet and managing symptoms.

Mr Platt, from Chatburn, said: "The course has been great and very informative. It's been good to be given diet and exercise information and do things that I hadn't done before. I've definitely got fitter and learnt a lot, and the exercises have been really motivational. If you're fitter you can cope with COPD better and I'm proof of that.”