With less than 100 days to go before the General Election, I’m rallying readers to get behind Cancer Research UK’s Cross Cancer Out campaign and urge their candidates to help save lives.

As someone undergoing treatment for cancer, I know firsthand we cannot underestimate the devastating impact the disease will have on families now and in the future.

New figures show one in two of us will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in our lives, so it’s absolutely vital that the NHS is fit to offer all cancer patients the best possible chance of surviving.

Cancer Research UK is calling for all election candidates to back measures to ensure people with cancer receive the best treatment and are diagnosed early enough for that treatment to make a difference. These must be key priorities if the next Government is to save more lives.

Currently, survival rates in the UK are still lagging behind the best in Europe and too many cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stage, when they are harder to treat successfully.

You can make sure your next MP is committed to beating cancer sooner by visiting cruk.org/crosscancerout and emailing your candidates directly from the website.

Ronny Allan, Cancer Research UK volunteer Campaigns Ambassador, New Forest West