Improving mental and physical healthcare in West Sussex

There are other devastations we could do more to prevent. I recommend that we all get our flu vaccinations - free for the young, the old and the vulnerable. It is worthwhile too at low cost for healthy adults. Older generations knew the devastation of polio, measles, mumps and rubella.

Smallpox would not have been eliminated worldwide forty years ago if the ill-informed questioning of the value and safety of vaccination had been current when I and my children were growing up.

It is important that our young generations are protected against other diseases that endanger their lives. One is the Human Papillomavirus (HPV), the cause of numerous diseases, including fatal cancers.

It has been estimated that HPV is the cause of at least five per cent of all cancer cases in the United Kingdom.

With medical experts and with many of my colleagues and friends I still campaign to achieve so-called herd immunity – enough boys and girls vaccinated to make it impossible for an epidemic to spread far.

For many years we relied upon vaccinating girls only. HPV is not just an issue for women – it is an issue for men too. We will soon prevent unnecessary cancers in men as well as better protecting women.

Not all health problems are physical. I briefly attended the Offington Church event that concluded Worthing