BBC World Service, this is Helena Merriman with the inquiry. This week are we fighting

cancer the right way. Every minute, every day someone gets the news.

I'm 21 years old and I was just diagnosed with stage 4

Hodgkin's lymphoma, which is like a cancer of the blood.

Some catch it early.

It's all working out to be fine.

Now I have five weeks off for radiation and chemotherapy.

Hopefully both of them will kill cancer.

Others aren't so lucky.

He gives me somewhere between 45 and 90 days left to live.

Now I've got a firm line in the sand.

I'll be using every second that I've got. Cancer is now one of the world's biggest killers.

And it's not just a disease of the rich world.

In fact, more than half of those who die live in developing countries.

And the number of people who are

diagnosed with cancer every year is rising rapidly. Currently it's around 14

million. By 2030 the World Health Organization predicts that will grow to 24 million.

With costs for treatments spiraling out of control, you can see why world leaders are making bold pledges.

For the loved ones we've all lost, for the families that we can still save,

let's make America the country that cures cancer once and for all.

But we've been here before.

I sent a message to the Congress the first of this year which provided for a national commitment for the conquest of cancer to attempt to find a cure.

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