NO ONE with a shred of feeling could fail to be moved by the NSPCC's hard-hitting campaign which has been launched this week.

Local people are being asked to support the society's moves to bring child abuse to a Full Stop. A series of harrowing TV adverts depict awful scenarios of youngsters being abused. Although little is seen, the voices have a truly chilling effect.

Stars like the Spice Girls and Alan Shearer have been enlisted to show how people avert their eyes to the horrors of child abuse, rather than get involved. A nationwide poster campaign is driving home the message.

A Pledge Form for individuals to sign up to back the campaign is being delivered to 23 million households in the country, and this weekend, people in the Bolton area are being asked to sign the pledge at the Shipgates Shopping Centre.

Child abuse is a terrible cancer in our community. It kills at least one child every week, and insiduously blights the lives of many thousand more each year. Its effects last well into adulthood, and the cycle of abuse that can result often goes through the generations.

No individual should say "child abuse has nothing to do with me". It is the duty of every single person to be alert to any form of abuse of a defenceless child, and to do something about it.

Simply turning away is condemning a child to more harm and possible death, and we urge everyone to back the NSPCC and its work in every possible way. Even if it is only putting your name on a piece of paper.

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