After a period when the headlines have been dominated by problems within the National Health Service, the opportunity to focus on its strengths is welcome. This week the excellent work to tackle breast cancer has been highlighted, and not before time.

Parliamentary campaigner Judith Church MP toured York District Hospital today, just days after it had announced plans for a £1.5 million breast cancer centre. She was also addressing the Yorkshire Breast Care Nurses national conference.

Yesterday delegates listened to an impressive message from Simon Weston. He told them the search for physical perfection was a futile one, and that people can draw great strength from their battle to overcome illness or accidents.

Mr Weston himself is living proof of this principle. The bomb that exploded on his ship during the Falklands War left him terribly disfigured. Yet he has gone on to become an unofficial ambassador for victims of injury and sickness.

Mr Weston's mother was one of the many thousands of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. It is a disease that still takes a terrible toll.

Clinical work in this field suffered a blow to morale earlier this month when a Danish scientific study cast doubt on the life-saving capability of breast screening. It was an intervention that much of the medical establishment found unhelpful.

In contrast to the Danish findings, Britain's breast screening programme has been a remarkable, and quantifiable, success. The National Screening Committee estimates that 1,250 lives were saved a year through breast cancer screening. Eight thousand cancers were discovered among a million women checked in 1997 and 1998.

These figures fortify the campaign by York's Lord Mayor Peter Vaughan and his wife June to raise money and awareness for breast cancer care. Mrs Vaughan had the disease herself 16 years ago. They will be delighted by the commitment by ministers and health bosses to intensify the fight against breast cancer.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.