REPLYING to your correspondent, George Holt. I cannot comment on diabetes/Alzheimer's being a symptom of our modern living, but he is very mistaken in believing asthma is a "modern" disease.

I was diagnosed as having asthma in 1947, and, as a child, during winter especially, I was very ill.

This was due to the horrid fogs/smogs of the 1940s and 1950s, caused by coal fires (winter and summer), steam trains, industrial pollution (which I feel was far worse then than now), and the intense winters.

I recall going to Townleys, as it was then, for "breathing exercises", along with many other children of the borough.

I would think that asthma is probably aggravated by modern conditions in our homes, such as fitted carpets, central heating, and the multitude of pets some households have. But due to advances through preventative medicine, which have contributed to the control of asthma, it is a disease that both young and old can live with.

Thankfully, TB, diptheria, whooping cough, scarlet fever, and other killers of the past are now under control.

Each generation experiences medical problems that other generations haven't.

Mrs Val Hamer

Moss Hill

Bradshaw

Bolton