WARRNAMBOOL City Council has vowed to keep up the fight to reduce incidences of cancer in the municipality.
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Cancer Council Victoria has released new data showing the rates of the disease across the state.
The data shows 203 people in Warrnambool were diagnosed with cancer in 2015. In the same period, 77 people in the city lost their lives to the disease.
Manager community policy and planning at Warrnambool City Council Lisa McLeod said a proactive approach was being taken.
“We have a health and wellbeing plan that focuses on prevention,” Ms McLeod said.
“Council has a lot of initiatives in place to support cancer prevention.”
Ms McLeod said the council had sunsmart policies for outdoor staff, smoking regulations in public spaces and physical activity programs that promoted healthy lifestyles.
“Our programs are in place to help people make healthy choices,” Ms McLeod said.
“In our early childhood learning centres, healthy eating is a real focus.
“Water is not only a drink of choice but in fact the only drink.
‘We are also promoting the h30 challenge which is about swapping sugary drinks for water. “
Data from Cancer Council Victoria shows 60,000 years of life is lost prematurely to cancer each year in Victoria.
That figure translates to a third of all premature deaths in the state, four times more than the years lost to other major causes of death.
In 2015, over 31,600 Victorians were diagnosed with cancer.
Almost 11,000 died from the disease in that year.