JMorgan

Last updated 01:00, Thursday, 28 June 2007

AN injection to help protect against cervical cancer has to be one of the best news stories in a long while.

Helping future generations of women to avoid the horrors of cancer is truly something to celebrate. Those involved in developing this jab should feel rightly proud of themselves for this fantastic medical step forward.

The aim is to give girls aged around 12 the injection to help protect them against human papilloma virus (HPV), a sexually-transmitted disease which causes the majority of cervical cancers.

However, opponents of the injection claim that immunising girls against the disease may encourage young people to have sex.

There are many reasons why under-aged girls have sex; low self-esteem, abuse, peer pressure or they are simply exploring their developing sexuality. It isn’t because they think they will be immune to cervical cancer.

Teenagers will still need to be educated and supported to ensure they have respectful attitudes towards their bodies and their future partners.

Giving girls this injection won’t increase their sexuality, but it will lower their risk of dying from cancer.

Parents have a duty to protect their children from harm and this injection has the potential to save their youngsters from dying horribly from cancer. We should all be rejoicing.

There is also talk that boys will be injected in a big push to eradicate the disease (much like TB) from the population as a whole. If it is available in time for my sons, they will be getting it.

Each year around 900 women die of cervical cancer. Across the world there are 471,000 new cases of the cancer, with 80 per cent of these in the less developed world.

Surely, for once, we can all stand up and cheer the prospect of all these cherished lives being saved.

ANOTHER good idea from the medical world is to have free bra-fittings on the NHS in an attempt to save them thousands of pounds of unnecessary breast-reduction operations.

My friend and I are addicted to make-over shows and every time we see the woman at the start of the programme we text each other “hair and boobs”.

If ever a woman is feeling bad about how she looks, the first two things she should do is go get a fab new haircut and be correctly measured for a bra.

A great haircut can knock 10 years off you and a properly-fitted bra will lift your knockers off your knees. Result.