BELATEDLY reading Stephen Lewis' article "Beat Patrol" (July 29), on the rehabilitation of heart patients, I was reminded of my own rehabilitation after a heart attack and by-pass surgery in 1995, long before the Heart Manual and Primary Health Care Trusts existed.

At the time I was advised by Dr Roger Boyle (now the nation's heart tsar) to contact the York Coronary Support Group, which he had created years previously.

This group gave my wife and me warm and effective support in overcoming the feeling that nothing would ever be the same again, and in providing the means for physical rehabilitation (gym, swimming, aqua-aerobics and walking groups) which the Heart Manual, valuable though it is, can only describe on the printed page.

We both were very appreciative of the activities of the YCSG and, as soon as I felt well enough - which did not take long - I decided to do as much as I could, I drove driving patients or their spouses while they were unable to do so, met new patients and spoke to them about their concerns from the patient's rather than the health professional's point of view.

The YCSG consists entirely of ex-patients such as myself, and their wives or husbands who volunteer all their services, including the raising of funds to pay for it all.

We meet on the first Monday every month at 7.30pm at the New Earswick Folk Hall, Haxby Road.

Marc Schatzberger,

The Village,

Skelton, York.

Updated: 10:24 Monday, August 19, 2002