Cancer charity says patients worried about costs while receiving treatment

A cancer charity has said patients are becoming increasingly worried about how they are going to feed themselves due to the financial threat faced while having treatment.

Macmillan’s Rodrigo Fenick, said he was witnessing people going through hardship on a scale he had not seen in his 25-year career, adding that some were really panicking about money.

“I’ve never seen the amount of concern from people in terms of “how am I going to survive? How am I going to feed myself? How am I going to feed my kids?” Then there’s the priority “do I keep the heating on or do I put the heating off? Do I buy enough basic food to go through the week? What do I do without?”

The Macmillan cancer charity said it gave away over £1.2m to London cancer patients in 2021, an increase of 21 per cent on 2020.  It expects demand to increase this year.

Mr Fenick said there were benefits available and that energy companies offered schemes for people, but many did not know what was available to them.

A spokesperson for the Department of Work and Pensions said it was “committed to getting people the support they’re entitled to as quickly as possible, and we will backdate awards to ensure no one misses out.”

They added that they were also opening up phone and video assessments, and clearance times had greatly improved, returning to pre-pandemic levels.

“We are also protecting the most vulnerable households across the UK – saving households around £1,300 on energy bills this winter and providing a further £12bn of direct support in 2023-24, including £900 work of cost of living help for those on means-tested benefits.”

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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