Cancer patients worried about costs while receiving treatment - charity

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

Rodrigo Fenick, from Macmillan, said he was witnessing people going through hardship on a scale he had not seen in his 25-year career.

The charity's benefits case worker said some were really panicking about money.

"Their heating bill will go up tremendously," he said.

"We are not talking about a couple of hundred, but over a couple of hundred pounds."

• Young cancer patients 'in a desperate situation'

• 'My stress of rising costs and a child with cancer'

• Nurse with stage three cancer working to pay bills

Other unexpected costs include wigs or post-surgery clothing.

He added: "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 go without?'"

'Freezing all the time'

Debbie Potts, 55 from west London, has had cancer twice since being first diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2021.

A self-employed virtual assistant, she stopped working for eight months while having chemotherapy while her partner went part-time to look after her. This left them with a quarter of their normal income.

"We made a choice that we will go without and just look after me beating this awful disease," she said.

She said they made the choice to not turn the heating on.

"I had four or five months of chemo. I was freezing all the time and I said to Dan (her partner) 'don't turn the heating on because it's one expense we can do without - just give me blankets, I'll be fine'" she said.

Debbie Potts has been treated for cancer twice

Another cost Ms Potts had to take on was cabs; a weakened immune system meant she was advised to avoid public transport so she ended up spending about £50 a week going to and from the Royal Marsden Hospital.

"I tried to cycle but I was so weak," she said adding that some days she managed the journey on her bike, but at other times she could not.

After several months of resisting asking for help, she contacted Macmillan who helped with transport costs and gave her a cost of living grant that helped her pay her heating bill for the winter.

"It was a godsend," she said.

• Who can get the latest cost-of-living payments?

• Timings for £900 cost-of-living payments announced

Macmillan said it gave away more than £1.2m to London cancer patients in 2021, an increase of 21% 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.

But Ms Potts said the benefits system could be too bureaucratic to navigate when undergoing cancer treatment.

'We just want a helping hand'

"When you are in the middle of having chemo and you have to emotionally process what you are going through, you don't want to fill out a 32-page form and then it takes another 18 weeks before you even get a yes or a no," she said.

"We are not asking for support for the rest of our lives.

"We just want that little help, from when we are diagnosed, through the treatment, little into the recovery because we want to get back to work and do the things we love doing, we just want a helping hand, we are not saying give us millions."

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 said they were also opening up assessments by phone and video, 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 worth of cost of living help for those on means-tested benefits."