From Ted Barrow, Cowes:

When you are well over 80 and have had some health problems, the idea of attending a dozen hour-long sessions of treatment at St Mary’s does not sound inviting.

Was I that unfit? What are they going to do to me? Was I up to it?

Fortunately I had a clue: the sessions were to be at the ‘Laidlaw’, the centre for physiotherapy and related treatment.

The course goes by the name of ‘Postural stability, strength and balance’, a well-designed regime which has received favourable publicity recently in one of the national dailies.

Five of us with varying ages and backgrounds assembled one Tuesday afternoon last November, met by two cheerful and very experienced practitioners.

They soon made it apparent this was a course where what we would get out of it depended on us, but they certainly provided plenty of motivation for us to do well.

Last week the course ended; we would all happily have gone on for many more weeks. All benefitted a great deal, each in our own way.

It was a good course but its tremendous success depended on the professionalism and enthusiasm of our two organisers (I will spare their blushes by not naming them).