Donate your body later and your blood now | Brief letters

Thank you for the article on body donation (My mother donated her body to science. I really wasn’t prepared for what came next, 24 October). How about adding a link online to how people can donate their own or a connected person’s body in the UK, together with giving blood or plasma in life? When our brother died in the 1960s, our parents agreed that any useful bits could be recycled. I came late to regular blood-giving; even so, with the retirement age abolished, my number is over 100. Join us? Peter Bottomley London The Word wheel puzzle in your print edition states “there is at least one nine-letter word to be found”. The nine-letter solution given for the puzzle of 20 October was “intricate”. There is a second nine-letter word: “triactine”, a zoological term for “three-rayed”. What do I win? Kevin Ward Quorn, Leicestershire Emma Beddington offers some excellent advice to young people on the world of work (Your boss might be an idiot – and 12 other things you need to know about work, 25 October), to which I would add: always pay into a pension, and always join a union. Cherry Weston Wolverhampton Has Maureen Lennard-Brown’s 65-year-old Addis broom (Letters, 25 October) had 17 new heads and 14 new handles, by any chance? Ken James Slough, Berkshire In September 1937 Vivian Stanshall bought his wife a new electric iron for eight and sixpence. She’s still using it every day and it’s never needed repair. Nigel Hughes Southwater, West Sussex