ON Mother's Day, I visited St Mary's graveyard in Prestwich where a group of men were working very hard, clearing brambles and shrubs from some rough ground.

Buried in the ground being cleared are hundreds of patients from the former Prestwich "Asylum", plus paupers of the parish.

One of the men told me that efforts are being made to get some sort of memorial to these poor people, who died lonely and unloved. Many would have been people whose mental illness would now be treatable.

Let's hope some kind of memorial can be erected in their memory.

C. HELLIWELL (Mrs)