Brosnan, Cross, and basketball icon and cancer survivor Kareem Abdul-jabbar were in Washington, D.C. to launch the One Degree campaign, a programme started by charities Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN).

The One Degree campaign aims to urge members of Congress to increase funding for the National Institutes of Health by $6 billion over the next two years, including $1 billion for the National Cancer Institute.

The idea behind the movement is that every person is connected to someone who has either survived or died from the deadly disease. The effort has attracted the support of many grassroots advocates and celebrities, including Brosnan, Cross and Abdul-Jabbar, who all spoke at an event to share their personal One Degrees of separation.

Brosnan told the crowd, "We're at a point that is absolutely critical. Funding is being cut, and if not now, when are we going to come together to help save lives?"

The former 007 has long been a supporter of SU2C and other related organisations since his first wife, Cassandra Harris, passed away from ovarian cancer aged 43 in 1991. Her daughter, Charlotte, also died from the same disease in 2013.