GOOD NEWS IS HAPPENING NOW WHEN IT COMES TO CANCER:

AT THE South Wales Echo, news is at the heart of what we do.

We live it – but we remain aware that some news can change lives.

Such as when somebody close to you is diagnosed with cancer.

You may recently have read stories calling for improvements in Britain’s cancer survival rates. Nobody would argue that we desperately need those improvements or that we need them fast.

But it’s also important to remember the progress our generation has seen in fighting this disease. And to hear the good news stories from people whose lives have been saved by new research or who have benefited from innovative, kinder treatments.

That’s why we have teamed up with Cancer Research UK for the next month to tell some of those stories in our pages and to delve more deeply into some of the good news there really is to read about cancer.

Because there is good news. And we’d like to share it with you. Thanks to Cancer Research UK, there is research happening right now – research which means more people will be getting more positive news about cancer in the future.

Of course there is still much work to be done to develop more effective treatments and better diagnostic tools. There’s lots more to discover about how we prevent cancer in the first place.

We also know there are variations in survival rates between cancer types. However, let’s keep in mind that more people than ever are alive today thanks to research.

Over the past 40 years, Cancer Research UK reports that overall cancer survival in the UK has doubled. In the 1970s one in four people survived their disease for 10 years or more. Today, it is two in four and improving.

The rate of improvement in the survival rate means that an estimated 519,000 cancer deaths have been avoided in the UK between the 1980s and 2010.