Cancer support

His promise of one-to-one support at home for sufferers will make an invaluable difference to the lives, and treatment, of patients who face long, time-consuming and painful trips to hospital for chemotherapy and other treatment. And the travel costs soon add up when these journeys have to be undertaken several times a week.

It's why the report being prepared by the Commission for Rural Communities will be so crucial to the advancement of Mr Brown's plan – even if Labour voters are few and far between in the more remoter parts of areas like the Yorkshire Dales. For, like it or not, governments are responsible for the whole country, and not just favoured special interest groups. Both Labour and the Tories need to remember this; the latter with regard to Britain's inner cities.

Yet, while much emphasis in recent times has been placed on the centralisation of core NHS services in order to encourage clinical excellence, this places people in more outlying areas at a significant disadvantage.

However, advancements in the treatment of cancer, and the onset of tele-medicine, make it far easier for patients to be treated locally than in the past.

This is a point that the CRC needs to make forcefully to the Government so patients across the country can have access to test results within a week, the promise made by Mr Brown last year.