Each year thousands of UK holidaymakers search for cheap flights in search of summer warmth and relaxation, but many are not aware of the dangers it may cause to their skin .
Soaring rates of skin cancer were blamed yesterday on the British fondness for holidays abroad involving long periods of beach-relaxation. Exposing large areas of flesh to the midday sun is the surest way of triggering the lethal form of skin cancer known as malignant melanoma .
Melanoma is the fastest-rising cancer, with figures from Cancer Research UK showing an increase of 43 per cent during the last decade. Even more alarming is the threat to younger people, aged 25 to 44, where the rise is even higher - up 50 per cent between 1995 and 2004.
The form of cancer can be treated if caught early, but it is the most aggressive of the skin cancers and causes around 1,800 deaths each year. In 2004 there were 8,939 new diagnoses, compared to 5,783 in 1995.
The link between the rise in melanoma and air travel is that both include increases that mirror one another, with foreign travel up by 48 per cent between 1997 and 2006 (68 million trips abroad taken last year compared with 46 million in 1997) according to the Association of British Travel Agents .
Experts yesterday stated that foreign travel was a key factor behind the increase in the cancer, and the boom in cheap flights is certain to see it increase further, even though a time lag exists between exposure to the sun and development of cancer of between eight and 30 years.
Sara Hiom, director of health information at Cancer Research UK, commented: "I do think cheap air travel is a factor behind the increase."
"The British tend to throw caution to the wind when abroad and, desperate to get a tan, take more risks in the sun. The increase in foreign holidays has been an important cause of the rise in melanoma ."
According to experts, the growth of the cancer in younger people is largely due to sunburn (the highest risk of causing cancer) contracted during their childhood and adolescence, when the skin is more vulnerable.
Melanoma used to be a disease of affluence, as it was more commonly found among those who could afford to take foreign holidays . However, a combination of the major boom in package holidays and the arrival of cheap flights in the 1990s have had a huge impact on the population affected by the disease .
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