The prime minister's solemn declaration to make cancer treatment in this country more affordable is welcome for cancer sufferers and their families.

Modern lifestyles have made Malaysians to not to take care of their health seriously and cancer seems to infect everybody nowadays without regards to colour or creed. The disease also doesn't discriminate between the poor and the rich.

While rich individuals can afford to pay for their treatment, the poor will have a tough time paying for their medical bills to fight their illness. It cost a bomb to be treated at private hospitals and public hospitals are already full of those poor individuals who can't afford to pay for private treatment.

Hopefully, with lower cancer treatment costs, more patients can be saved to enable them to have a second lease on life.

For those whose lives are at an end stage, hopefully hospices with better-trained staff can be set-up to give emotional support and to allow the dying to die with dignity.