I AM sure I was not the only reader who was shocked and upset at the report in The Bolton News last Saturday of the 99-year-old man who fell in the street, injured his head and had to wait 75 minutes for an ambulance.

There was, however, a most uplifting aspect to the story. The man and his wife, also in her 90s, were on their way to vote in last Thursday’s local elections.

These two people are representative of a generation who will remember the fight for democratic rights for working class men and women and are determined to exercise those hard-won rights.

I guess all of us involved in last week’s elections could give more examples.

I know two elderly, oxygen-dependent people in my ward who arranged for family members to take them to polling stations and there were a number, leaning heavily on sticks, who overcame their impairments to vote. It is very moving to see this determination to exercise the right and responsibility of voting.

We are often reminded that this is an age of celebrity. For me, the people who should be celebrated are individuals like the 99-year-old man, who refuse to allow age or infirmity to stop them from taking part in what is the most important act of a citizen — voting for or against the people who govern them.

The turnout in the elections was low. It would be good to think that when the next local elections come round in 2014, more of our fellow citizens will follow the example of the frail and elderly who so impressed me on May 3.

Cllr Kevin McKeonHorwich North-east