MID Dorset and North Poole MP Annette Brooke became a citizen scientist to help Cancer Research UK’s fight against the disease.

She spent five minutes on the charity’s new Cell Slider website, the first interactive website to run real archive cancer data into a format that can be analysed by members of the public.

Users are guided through a tutorial explaining which cells to analyse and which to ignore. At the moment, the process of identifying certain molecules in cancer cells to help scientists understand why people respond differently to treatment is slow.

The idea of the website is to accelerate research by enlisting lay people to become citizen scientists.

Mrs Brooke said: “Research is cancer’s number one enemy. I urge everyone to take five minutes to get involved with this exciting initiative.”