Treat older generation with respect

Who decides when someone is past the point that their life is worth trying to save?

And where should such an arbitrary threshold be set? 80? 60? 50?

Advances in medical science have gifted mankind the opportunity to have longer lives.

• Older cancer patients written off, says Macmillan charity

But Macmillan Cancer Support says that the survival rate for people with lung cancer in Britain is 44 per cent worse than the European average for people over 75.

The charity says it is the same across the spectrum of common cancers – such as kidney, ovarian, stomach, prostate and breast.

We have access to the same drugs and treatment in this country as our continental neighbours. So why are we so different?

A Macmillan survey of oncologists reveals fewer than half of them would give chemotherapy to a 73-year-old, while eight out of 10 would do it for a 68-year-old.

Imagine if that was your mother being written off for the sake of a few years.

We know far more about the risks associated with our lifestyles than many of our older relatives did when they were young.

Anyone who starts smoking today is left in absolutely no doubt of what it will do for their insides.

But not only did older people start life in a world with far less on offer in terms of medical treatment, they also worked hard and contributed to the National Health Service.

All they were asking was that it would be there to help them when they were ill.

Cancer is a wicked and cruel disease that can strike not just those who have lived an unhealthy lifestyle but those who have taken care of themselves for decades.

Our population is ageing.

As a society we have to adapt to caring for people not just at the very start of their lives but at the end as well.

That means treating them with the dignity and respect they have more than earned over the years.

And it starts with the health service doing everything it can to help them to live.