GETTING the all-clear after fearing you have cancer must be one of the most exhilarating feelings on earth. I shared my sister's joy recently when she discovered the lump in her breast was benign. We all want to believe we can trust such test results. But women's faith in cancer screening programmes is being shaken.

This week, the family of a North-East mother-of-six, who died aged 33 from cervical cancer, are blaming their local NHS trust for failing to act on her smear results. At the same time, a health watchdog in the South has condemned a series of screening blunders as "unacceptable and avoidable" after 11 women developed breast cancer despite being given the all-clear.

There have been a string of similar cases over the past decade, where women have been misdiagnosed, some going on to die needlessly of a disease that, if caught early, can be treated and cured.

Such an appalling shambles can't be blamed on lack of funding or staff shortages. Gordon Brown's NHS cash boost won't make any difference because it is mismanagement, incompetence and downright carelessness that are repeatedly costing lives. But still lessons have not been learned. What does it take to ensure this latest scandal will be the last?

IN the same week a 77-year-old widow died after being mugged on a Newcastle street for her fish supper, Channel 4 screened a depressing programme about the life of Tynside single mother Susie, who spent her days in her council flat with her friends and two-year-old son, watching TV, smoking and drinking. They were all oblivious to the fact there was a General Election going on during filming. Susie's unemployed boyfriend dreamed of living in a hot country with lots of money and a nice car. None of them had any legitimate aspirations. They were all deeply in debt, but it was the poverty of their minds that was most alarming. For Susie's two-year-old son, the future looks hopelessly bleak. It was enough to make the most hard-hearted viewer weep.

SCARBOROUGH-based playwright Alan Ayckbourn says: "Men don't listen. They like to be listened to." Which could explain why the new TV comedy, The Book Group, about a reading group with both men and women, is hopelessly wide of the mark. Men and book groups just don't mix because men don't want to join a discussion, they just want to tell you what they think. Perhaps some readers can prove me wrong?

POSH Spice, annoyed by a recent advert featuring her husband David Beckham naked, must be grateful that, during a week in which every newspaper has featured huge photographs of his foot, that he didn't suffer a groin njury.

I pity Hugh Grant, apparently being willed by the nation to act as surrogate father to his ex Liz Hurley's baby. Gossip was fuelled by his admission in an interview this week: "I've always longed to be a dad." But wouldn't most men say the same if asked? Hugh is a great support to Liz, but he isn't the baby's father and that role shouldn't be forced on him, no matter how much we all love gushy Hollywood endings.

Published: 19/04/2002