WORKERS who pulled out all the stops to get in despite atrocious weather conditions have been praised for their efforts.

Hundreds of employees used unusual, and sometimes imaginative, ways of reaching work through the ice and snow today and on Tuesday.

In many cases, their efforts have stopped East Lancashire's economy and vital services from grinding to a halt.

In Blackburn, a GP proved that the weather is no excuse for cancelled appointments.

Dr Mark Dziobon could not move his rear-wheel drive car in the ice, so he cycled the 12 miles from his home in Bolton to the Shadsworth Surgery, Shadsworth Road, Blackburn.

It meant he kept all his appointments, even as colleagues struggled to make it in.

He said: "There was no way of getting my car out but I thought that if a 37-year-old GP can't get into work, it is a sad state of affairs.

"So I borrowed my wife's mountain bike and cycled down the A666, which was a little bit hairy and a few cars got in the way.

"I would do it again, though. When you have got elderly patients, snow is no excuse for missing home visits and not getting into work is simply not an option."

Elsewhere, in Nelson, machine operator Jack Gouch walked the three miles from his home in Barrowford Road, Colne, to PDS Engineering in Cliffe Street, Nelson.

He said: "When I woke up I was completely snowed in and I just could not get my car out so I had to walk in.

"It normally takes me five minutes in the car so it took quite a bit longer but I thought I'd have to try everything to get in."

Mr Gouch's commitment won praise from his boss John Getty who was snowed in himself at home in Hebden Bridge.

In Burnley, all but two out of 24 employees at Accrington Road-based brewery Moorhouse's made it into work, with some resorting to desperate measures to do so.

Managing director David Grant, who lives in Ramsbottom, was forced to get the firm's warehouse manager to pick him up from home in a company Nissan Navarra 4x4 vehicle.

Mr Grant said: "We have had a few issues with deliveries so we have used our 4x4s to get around, including ferrying me to and from work.

"Staff-wise, we have had almost everybody in, which is great."

Mike Damms, chief executive of the East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, said: "People shine through the adversity in situations like this, and clearly a lot of people have done everything they can to get into work.

"The weather seems to have brought out the best in people."

Watch our video of people struggling in the snow in Blackburn.

Do you know any heroes who helped out in the snow? Add your comments below.