Skin cancer diagnosis on the rise in the region

There has been a big rise in the number of people diagnosed with malignant melanoma. Credit: Press Association

Three people in their 50s in our region are being diagnosed with the most dangerous type of skin cancer every week.

It is as the number of men and women in their 50s nationally diagnosed with malignant melanoma has soared since the end of the 1970s.

Across Britain rates of malignant melanoma in people in their 50s have more than tripled over the last 30 years, rising from 7.5 cases of melanoma per 100,000 to 26.6 cases per 100,000.

And the latest available figures show that the total number of cases of malignant melanoma for all ages has increased from around 12,100 in the UK in 2009 to around 12,800 in 2010 - a rise of more than 5%.

In Yorkshire around 890 people of all ages are diagnosed with malignant melanoma every year and around 150 die from the disease.