Nurse Wendy Alsford spent her working life confronting...

Nurse Wendy Alsford spent her working life confronting illness, frailty and death as she cared for society's sick in hospitals across Britain. Since retiring, a state co-ordinator with the organisation Human Writes, she spends up to six hours a day corresponding with some of the 3,700 men and women facing execution on death row in the US. Human Writes is a voluntary group arranging pen friends for prisoners. It claims a large proportion of inmates have learning difficulties and were abused as children. Conditions on death row in many states are harsh and dehumanising with inmates locked up for 23 hours a day with little or no contact with the outside world. Alsford, who writes up to 10 letters a day, said: "I know many of these people are guilty of terrible crimes but they don't deserve to be executed 18 years down the line - that is torture."In many cases, they have had years to sit alone in dreadful conditions and reflect on their crimes. Many of them wish they could start over again and show genuine sympathy to their victim's families."It can be very emotional when there is an execution because you have formed a friendship. I stay up all night with a candle lit in their memory."Their final letters are very touching because they know there are going to a better place."