One of the advantages of not being tied to an office routine nowadays is that I occasionally catch a morning episode of Frasier, the old American sitcom being re-run regularly with its sharp scripts.

In one, Frasier was being tempted to recreate something from his past until he realised that he was looking back through rose-tinted spectacles.

“The past has a strange attraction,” he mused, as he realised that he was remembering only the good things.

Reflecting on one particular era, the 1960s, another television series “Call the Midwife” does a particularly good job in contrasting the good and the bad; the sixties saw massive social change, and the Sunday evening programme shows poor conditions in slum housing, racism, bigotry and prejudice towards those of difference and a failure by the authorities to address poverty.

It also shows that despite all the flaws it was a time of a caring society, where “ordinary” people showed a tremendous sense of community to help their neighbour. Nowhere is this more evident than in the wonderful compassion of the health professionals in a relatively new NHS, not even 20 years old at that stage when people, not money, came first.

I would suggest that the caring nature of people working in today’s NHS is continuing a fine tradition.

Of the many strong storylines showing the changing times, there was another this week with Dr. Turner wanting to encourage women to come for a new test for cervical cancer, even though it meant a serious increase in workload for the hard-pressed GP.

The issue has been back in the news in the last few years, well over half a century later and I think that fact highlights two things: firstly, the massive strides made in medical knowledge in the treatment of cancers, but also the reluctance of women to go for the test for whatever reason. It is, perhaps, the same for many other medical conditions.

But I suppose the reason the storyline from the sixties resonated with me is that my mother died of cervical cancer at the tender age of 40 in 1972, just a few years after the time which “Call the Midwife” focuses on. When I wrote about this before some time ago, remarkably I was approached by a local lady who was able to tell me that she was in the bed next to my mum when the doctor came along to tell her of her diagnosis.

It was a tough story; my mum was on her own (why they didn’t wait until someone was with her I don’t know) and the whole cubicle was cleared of other patients. Except this lady in the next bed, who couldn’t be moved, and all these years later she recounted my mother’s very emotional reaction to being told very harshly by the consultant that she was dying. I feel sure that such news is broken today in a more considerate and supportive way.

I really don’t know if my mother could have been diagnosed earlier, but I do know that we lost her and she missed all of my adult life.

I also know that medical advances mean that not only is there a much greater chance of survival, but also that patients who suffer from cancer get much greater pain relief than the agony that I remember my mum going through.

Crucially, early diagnosis is available and journalists have recently been running stories about the need for women to go for their smear tests.

There is, it has to be said, some negativity around cervical cancer.

I read this week about a woman in England, Julie O’Connor recording a video on her deathbed in which she talks to camera about the six tests she had which failed to diagnose her cancer. “I’m going to die in the next few days,” she says, and she did. It was sad to see her daughter talking in the same way I felt about having to live her adult life without her.

In the Republic of Ireland, there has been controversy over deaths of women badly let down by the country’s screening programme in recent years.

Having been initially cleared, some were called back and told that they had cancer after all. And it was too late.

In our own Western Trust, as the Impartial reported last week, 86 women have received letters asking them to come back for second smear tests after some issue or other with the original.

And in England, there is particular concern that many women are either failing to get appointments, or in some cases reluctant to even make an appointment.

I think the authorities need to get their act together, both in providing the right resources and in making sure the labs they outsource the testing to ensure the results are pinpoint accurate.

All that said, we should remember that in the UK and Ireland hundreds of thousands of women undergo reassuring smear tests every year and move on.

The fight against all forms of cancer goes on and more and more people now survive. The word cancer may not quite be the death sentence it was, but it still strikes fear and anxiety into people. Perhaps that’s partly why people don’t get tested, but lives could be saved.

Early diagnosis is key, whether it be cervical cancer, breast cancer or in men prostate cancer. Or indeed many other forms which can be beaten nowadays. I wrote a while ago about two close footballing friends, John Craig and Adrian Hopkins, who were tested early enough to have had very successful treatment.

It’s said that men are more reluctant than women to go to their doctors and talk about their health.

Perhaps that’s so, but honestly if our health is our wealth, remember to keep checking.

Tremendous advances have been made and despite many things being wrong at the management end of our health service, the caring nature and medical advances are there to see more lives being saved.

Last week, on February 4, it was World Cancer Day when the work of many organisations was highlighted. It also saw stories from many people who sadly lost loved ones to cancer.

I hope we can continue to see many more lives saved.