IT’S great to report some good news that hospitals in Huddersfield and Calderdale are beating targets when it comes to cancer care.

Thousands of people are diagnosed with this terrible illness each year but it also devastates the lives of their families too.

In Huddersfield all patients receive treatment, surgery or were placed on an anti-cancer regime within 31 days of a cancer diagnosis – well above the Department of Health’s 94% target.

And it’s also heartening to learn that Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust is running 37 trials for different types of cancer with a further seven trials in the set-up phase and around 20 under construction.

The advances made in the fight against ovarian cancer are particularly good through blocking the development of blood vessels in tumours. This is the briefest glimpse of the highly innovative ways cancer is now being tackled.

More than anything else, it highlights another great strength of the NHS.