My husband went to pick our son up from school today at about 3.15pm. He was stopped by a woman who wandered up to him and said there was an old man laid on the ground (in the subway) at the bottom of Polebarn Road/Roundstone Street).

She said she couldn't stop because she had a doctor's appointment. My husband went to help and when he got there the old man was obviously seriously in trouble he was not moving, there was vomit everywhere, his eyes were glazed and he had no pulse.

My husband rang the ambulance service and waited with the man until they arrived.

When I arrived home my husband was very upset not by the situation so much, as he is an ex-fireman by the nonchalant attitude of the woman.

Would this woman have stepped over the old man had no-one else been around?

Are we now such an uncaring nation that we toddle over the helpless and 'pass the buck' in the streets? Do we now live in America?

I hope this woman needs help herself one day and receives a more humane and less selfish response than she gave that old man at 3.15pm on a Monday afternoon.

We all have a responsibility to maintain the calibre of the society in which we participate.

L WILMOT

Wyke Road

Trowbridge