Leicester Wedding Photographer Ian Bursill

I already support a couple of charities with donations and my free time on a regular basis but I’ve decided that Ian Bursill Photography be supporting another charity in 2009 and will be making a regular monthly donation to a very worthwhile cause… Breast Cancer Campaign. The charity’s mission is to beat breast cancer by funding innovative world-class research to understand how breast cancer develops, leading to improved diagnosis, treatment, prevention and cure.

I was shocked to be told of some of the statistics and figures involved with this form of cancer, and that men are also vulnerable – albeit on a smaller scale. But the positive news is that the charity are making real progress to beating the disease through their world leading research. I’ve highlighted some of the statistics below.

In the UK

• Breast cancer is the most common cancer and accounts for nearly one in three of all cancers in women
• One woman in nine will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime
• Breast cancer is the second biggest cause of death from cancer in women

Every year

• Over 45,500 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer
• Almost 12,500 women will die from breast cancer

Every month

• Over 3,800 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer
• Over 1,000 women will die from breast cancer

Survival rates

• Five-year survival rates for breast cancer have improved significantly over the last 20 years
• The most recent figures show around 80 per cent of women in the UK diagnosed today will be alive in five years time
• This is largely due to increased awareness of breast cancer, the introduction of the screening programme and the successes of breast cancer research, which have led to improved treatments that are now available

Men (in the UK)

• Can also suffer from breast cancer. Although it is rare, almost 300 men are diagnosed each year
• Nearly 75 men a year die from breast cancer
• All the risk factors talked about on this web page refer to women.