Huge strides have been made in the treatment of cancer in recent years. Research has produced drugs and procedures which can greatly prolong some people's lives by boxing malignant cells into a corner and in a growing number of cases can even defeat them entirely. Death for those who are diagnosed with cancer is far from inevitable.

However, the key to successful treatment remains early and accurate diagnosis. The tragic case of 28-year-old Kelly Glossop from Bierley, who died last August from cervical cancer, appears to highlight that.

The claims by Kelly's family that she was wrongly given the all-clear from her last smear test needs to be fully investigated if confidence is to be restored in the system.

The family are right to be joining the national charity Jo's Trust in calling for better screening for women for cervical cancer and for smear tests to be offered earlier. At a time when girls and women are becoming sexually active younger, it was probably not wise for the Government last year to raise the age of smear testing from 20 to 25.

Lowering the age again, and offering the tests every 12 months instead of every three years as now, would certainly cost the NHS rather a lot of money - but nothing like as much as the cost of treating people with undetected, advanced cancer.

And if it meant that other families could be spared the sort of ordeal that Kelly Glossop and her family had to go through, it would surely be money well spent.