Shareholders get a bad press for putting our life savings at risk in the hope of receiving capital growth or dividend income. Yah, boo, hiss!

However, we also help to pay for medical research that can find cures for illnesses that kill millions of people. For example, obesity is now linked to a wide range of potentially fatal conditions – including cancer, heart attacks and strokes – that mean many folk are effectively digging their own graves, one spoonful at a time.