New figures show a stark rise in the number of people under 50 being diagnosed with cancer, the community’s leading cancer support charity announced this week.

Chai Cancer Care said that they were supporting “more people under the age of 50 than ever before”.

The announcement comes on the back of a recent report from Cancer Research UK, which found that cancer rates in 25 to 49-year-olds increased by 24 per cent between 1995 and 2019 and that between 2017 and 2019, approximately 100 people in this age group were diagnosed with cancer every day.

Lisa Steele Chai Cancer Care’s CEO, told the JC: “Despite significant advances in early diagnosis and treatment, we are witnessing a continued rise in the number of young people facing and living with cancer diagnoses each year.”

She said that reports showed that the increase in younger cancer patients was “partly due to lifestyle – obesity, poor diet and not exercising”.

More and more young people with cancer and their families are seeking out the services of Chai Cancer Care (Photo: Blake Ezra Photography Ltd)

But other reasons could include greater knowledge of cancer symptoms and less stigma attached to cancer than among previous generations, she said.

Steele said that while not all younger cancer patients they were seeing had their illness diagnosed at an early stage, “there is a lot more about cancer in the news, a lot more awareness of symptoms, so people will often notice things earlier. ”

Testicular cancer survivor Marc Rister, 29, was supported by Chai in 2023. A private banking specialist from Hertfordshire, Marc had led a healthy lifestyle before his diagnosis after he noticed a lump in one of his testicles.

Marc Rister on the mend (Photo: Marc Rister)

While doctors said the cancer hadn’t spread, they recommended a cycle of chemotherapy to reduce his chances of it returning.

During his treatment, Marc was supported by Chai with counselling and reflexology and his mother also went to the organisation for counselling.

Marc said: “The most important thing is to raise awareness. If cancer can happen to me – someone healthy, who exercises and does not drink, smoke or take drugs – it can happen to anyone.

“For anyone reading this, especially young men, it’s really important that we normalise checking ourselves regularly, talking about lumps we find, and, most importantly, going to a doctor.”

“Getting treatment when I did saved me months of additional intensive chemotherapy and maybe even saved my life.”

Steele said that the increase in younger patients had led to a rise in the demand for their services, particiularly among younger age groups.

A Chai Cancer Care art workshop (Photo: BLAKE EZRA PHOTOGRAPHY LTD)

In the past year, the charity, which has centres throughout the UK, has supported over 4,300 people, including both those with cancer and their loved ones. Of these, 1,500 were under 50, they said.

This is a steep rise from 10 years ago, when 12 per cent of its clients were under 50, said Steele.”When we first opened, it seemed that it was just older people who were getting cancer or whose families needed support. Now this is obviously not the case. We often find up to four generations needing to turn us.”

Go to your GP if you notice any changes in your body

Steele urged people of all ages “to be vigilant, and if they notice any changes in their bodies, to go to their GP”.

She also encouraged people to register for the NHS Jewish BRCA Testing Programme, which is for anyone over 18 with at least one Jewish grandparent. Carriers of the the BRCA gene mutation have a higher risk of developing some types of cancer, in particular, breast and ovarian and, in some cases, prostate and pancreatic.

Chai Cancer Care CEO Lisa Steele urges people to see their GP as soon as they notice any possible cancer symptoms (Photo: Chai Cancer Care)

Professor Charles Swanton from Cancer Research said: “Over recent decades, there has been a clear increase in cancer incidence rates in young adults in the UK. Evidence suggests that more adults under 50 may be getting cancer than ever before.”

“Changes to lifestyles and diets over time, and rising obesity, may all contribute to the uptick in early-onset cancer,” said Swanton.

“Genetics, improvements in diagnosis and screening and the microbiome could also play a role. It really is a scientific conundrum that urgently needs to be solved.”