The nation speaks out about cancer cures

Monday, March 29, 2010

Legal & General, one of the leading life insurance providers conducted research that indicated what the nation felt about discovering a cure for cancer. The research showed that 92 per cent of Britons do not believe that a cure for the disease will be found during the next ten years.

The research, which set out to support the launch of the life insurance providers report into premature adult deaths, highlighted that over 25 per cent of respondents believed that a cancer cure would not be found in the next fifty years. A significant seventeen per cent of the respondents believed that we would never find a cure for cancer.

From those participating in the study, there was a general agreement that increasing screening would have a positive impact on reducing cancer risks and forty per cent believe that the National Health Service should free up £1 million for a cure for cancer.

There were many other suggestions in the study, such as giving up smoking, however, a surprisingly low percentage of 38 believed that giving up would help reduce the risks and 27 per cent believed a healthier diet would help.

The life insurance provider also revealed that in 2005 alone, 153,000 deaths were the result of cancer. Add to cancer related deaths strokes and heart diseases, which are also very common causes of death in the UK and it demonstrates the importance of taking health seriously. It also underlines the importance of having life insurance or critical illness cover in place to ensure that our families are properly protected in the event of death or inability for the main breadwinner to work. The study also serves to remind us that even if we have a life insurance policy in place, that we should review it just to make sure that we have adequate protection in place and that our families are fully looked after.


Andrea Maher