CRI听力:UK, Lifestyle Contributes to Higher Cancer Rate in Women

After many years of battling breast cancer, Claire Footitt is now in remission.

According to Cancer Research UK, Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in the UK, where it kills 12,000 women every year.

While Claire doesn't believe her lifestyle contributed to developing cancer, she is worried that more and more women in Britain are getting the disease, because of increasing rates of obesity and alcohol abuse.

"You've got to look at your diet - without a shadow of a doubt. You have to, it's very important. I know they say it's '5-a-day' - do that 5 a day. It slows down your system you're clogging your arteries - it's not just cancer, it's a lot of other things. Yes, it's a knock-on effect. And do you want to go through something that I did? - No. You would never want to go through that."

On average, one-fifth of women across Europe will develop cancer by the age of 75. But in the UK specifically, that figure jumps by 17 percent.

As much as a quarter of women in Britain will suffer from a form of cancer before they reach 75 years old.

Experts say many cases could be prevented by sticking to a healthy diet and being more active.

According to Richard Evans of the World Cancer Research Fund, change is up to the individual:

"We know that, as a country, we tend to be more overweight than the European average and we tend to drink more alcohol. So it's not entirely surprising that these findings are as they are. But ultimately it's down to us as a country to make changes."

Undoubtedly genetics plays a large part but it is believed that a third of the most common cancers could be prevented by eating well and exercising more.

Professor Paul Moss of Cancer Research UK says the potential for reduction in breast cancer rates could be significant:

"We think a lot about heart disease and that's improving a lot over the last few years. But we tend not to think of cancer risk. Some of the charities suggest that if we improve our lifestyle we could reduce the instance of breast cancer by about 40 percent. So it really is quite dramatic."

The number of people in the UK who will now get cancer is higher than one in three.

Of course, changing a lifestyle of excess food and alcohol would help to reduce that number in Britain.

For CRI, I am Li Dong.