IT'S a campaign that certainly pulls at the heart strings this Valentine's Day.

And it's the perfect way to express your love for a band - and a man - that means so much to us music lovers in Southampton and fans worldwide.

A fan push has been launched to get Delays’ song Valentine to Number 1 just in time for the celebration of love and all of us at the Echo are giving it a huge thumbs up.

The group’s lovely and quite brilliant singer Greg Gilbert was recently diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and needs urgent treatment that is not currently available on the NHS.

While he undergoes chemotherapy, a group of fans have launched the #Valentine2Number1 in a bid to get the band's most successful song Valentine, back into the charts - or even to Number 1.

An MTV regular, the single reached number 23 on the UK Singles Chart when it was released in 2006 as the first single from the band's second album You See Colours.

It is my personal favourite Delays song, which always makes me sing at the top of my awful voice when it shuffles onto my iPod and is pretty unbeatable live, showing off Greg's striking falsetto voice perfectly.

So I'm urging readers to download and stream the band’s song between today and next Thursday. We need anyone who loves Delays and their shy yet supremely talented frontman to get involved. Check out the official Facebook page or Twitter feed, which give details of exactly where to download the song from.

I'm off to dig out my retro rainbow You See Colours t-shirt and make a newly downloaded version of Valentine the next song on my playlist.

Please show Greg some love this February 14.

Visit gofundme.com/give4greg to donate to his cause.

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Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here