THE decision by East Lancashire health bosses to keep the two breast cancer care nurses from whose jobs they withdrew funding last year is as welcome as it is right.

For not only did the extent of public protest show how valued these two women were, but the prevalence of this deadly disease - killing two women a week in our region - also proved how necessary they were.

It is a pity that this fact was lost sight of when the health authority removed the £26,000 needed to pay them.

But rather than dwell on that, we prefer to look at the "important step forward," as the health authority terms it, of the re-employment of Wendy Birtwistle and Hazel James as part of the Blackburn hospitals trust's specialist breast care nursing team.

That is a positive and encouraging outlook for the future and, we are sure, a heartening one for thousands of women in East Lancashire.

We are glad that our health bosses have had the courage to change their minds and think as the public did on this issue.

This may have been a victory for people power, but it is also one for common sense - and one in which this newspaper is glad to have played a small part.

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