FROM the latest figures, prostate cancer is expected to become the most common form of cancer, and even now 12,000 men a year die from it, a rise of 17 per cent in a decade.

Thankfully, in the same period, deaths from breast cancer decreased to 11,371, a drop of four per cent.

What is shocking is that funding for breast cancer research is £44m a year, but for prostate cancer research it is only £23m. This begs the question as to why there is such a huge disparity, but the cynic in me niggles with the idea that it is because women do not suffer from prostate cancer.

Both truly are horrifying and dreadful diseases, and so does the male cancer deserve at least the same amount of money into its causes, prevention and cure as breast cancer – but absolutely not by reducing the cash given to breast cancer. Action now.

Bobby Meynell, Stockton