'It was too late for my mum... but hopefully we can buy more time for others'

Her mother could not be saved.

But Rebecca Fletcher hopes others with a 'forgotten' cancer will have a better chance of survival thanks to new research.

Oldham's public health director Rebecca lost her mum, Lesley, to lung cancer just two months after she was diagnosed.

Rebecca, who lives in Salford with partner Mike, recalls Lesley always smoking from her being a youngster in the 1970s. When mum-of-two was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2009, the disease was already so advanced that she was unable to start treatment. She was given pain relief and died the day after Boxing Day, aged 63, at Wythenshawe Hospital.

Rebecca, aged 48, said: “It was devastating to lose my mum to lung cancer. Particularly as she died so quickly after being diagnosed. I know from my day job that lung cancer remains a deadly disease in the North West and can be a forgotten cancer which isn’t talked about enough."

But scientists in Manchester will continue their groundbreaking work into lung cancer thanks to up to £4m of funding from Cancer Research UK over the next five years.

The funding renewal for the Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence comes a decade after the centre was launched to tackle the disease which is the biggest cancer killer and third most common cancer in the UK.

Rebecca said: “As someone who has supported Cancer Research UK by fundraising at events like Race for Life, I am so heartened to see considerable investment in tackling the disease which killed my mum. The research expertise in Manchester sounds amazing and gives my family such hope for the future.”

In the North West, around 4,000 lives are saved from lung cancer every year - about ten a day. And since the 1970s, around 77,800 deaths have been avoided in the region.

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