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Home > Get involved > Donor connect >- Every 24 hours, ten children and young people are diagnosed with cancer or leukaemia.
- Cancer in childhood remains the single largest cause of death in children aged one year or over after accidents.
- Cancer and leukaemia (when too many immature white blood cells develop in the blood or bone marrow) are the biggest childhood killer diseases in the UK.
- Cancer in childhood (between 0-15 years) is rare. It affects approximately 1 in 600-650 children.
- 50% of children will be aged under five years at diagnosis.
- 75% of children will become long-term survivors of their disease – if you take all cancers together.
- In the UK 1,500-1,700 new cases are diagnosed each year in children 0-15 years.
- A cancer survivor is someone off treatment for one year or more.
- A long-term survivor is someone off treatment for five years or more.
- 30 years ago, only 30% of children were long-term survivors of their disease.
- Leukaemia is the most common childhood cancer, affecting about a third of children with cancer.
- Typical adult cancers, such as lung, breast, colon, and stomach, are extremely rare in children.