Last July, fifteen-year-old Edward Scott sought urgent to advice after he realized something was wrong.

I went on the NHS website and I found that all of the symptons that were * cancer were symtons I had. So the same day I went to my mum and said, mum, there is something really wrong, I have to go get it sorted out. So I went to the GP and on the same day, I found that I just got the cancer.

Accessible information, advanced technology and scientific research means cancer is being detected earlier and those affixed a living longer. In the 1970s, 23% of the patients survived for ten years. By 2007, that figure doubled. Here the latest, city suggests that more than 330,000 people were diagnosed with some forms of the disease in 2011. That's an increase of almost 50% over a decade.

The main reason that more and more people are developing cancer every year is because we have an aging population. And because people's risk of cancer goes up very signicantly as people get older, the more old people we have in our population, the more people will develop cancer. 

Other risk factors include obesity, smoking and alcohol. For now, a cure remains elusive, doctors insist that healthy living remains the biggest prevention against cancer.