The Bristol Evening Post has launched a cancer campaign with a front and back cover featuring the faces of 78 local people who all died of the illness.

Yesterday’s campaign launch – marked with a special edition – was the culmination of six months of research and interviews.

The disease claims a life every four minutes, with one in four people eventually succumbing to it – so the initiative is being labelled the One in Four Cancer Campaign.

The Prime Minister, who lost his mother to cancer when she was 52, wrote an exclusive column for the paper about the impact that the event had on himself and his family.

Tony Blair wrote: “It’s a disease which now kills one in four of us and has cast a shadow across almost every family in Bristol and the country. My family is no different.”

The campaign has involved more than 150 interviews and as well as raising money for local cancer services it will raise awareness of the symptoms and what people can do to reduce the risks of developing it.

It’s not as simple as giving up smoking – reporter Chris Maguire reported in his background article that poor diet is blamed for a third of all cancer deaths, and one in eight cancer deaths is related to being overweight.

Regular exercise, being sensible in the sun, reducing alcohol consumption and practising safe sex are four other measures proven to reduce the risks of developing certain types of cancer.

The Evening Post is set to turn the spotlight on all the major cancers, speak to the experts, and feature families whose lives have been touched by the disease.

Editor Mike Lowe said in his leader article: “Like everyone else the staff at the Evening Post have lost colleagues to cancer and it hurts.

“For many, cancer is indiscriminate and there is nothing that can be done to avoid it, including many of those 78 brave faces featured on today’s cover pages.

“We owe it to their memory, ourselves and our families, to do whatever we can to reduce the risk of developing cancer.”

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