My life is on pause until I'm old enough to get my pension
- Published
Linda's husband, Charles, died a week after being diagnosed with bone cancer
When Linda Jeffrey's husband Charles died suddenly, she was left to live on £77 a week.
The 64-year-old says she cannot afford to put her heating on, and she lives on food bank donations and cooking apples from a tree in her elderly mother's garden.
"I dream of eating lovely food like a big juicy steak," she told BBC Scotland.
"But my life is on pause just now until I reach 66 when I can collect my state pension."
Linda was the deputy supervisor of an after-school club in Dundee for six years until her husband died in September last year.
He was diagnosed with metastatic bone cancer just a week before his death. Linda went back to work a couple of months later.
"I was in shock when Charles died because we only knew he had cancer for a week before he passed away," she said.
"I went back to work too soon and felt weepy all the time and it wasn't fair on the children, so I went to the doctor and was told I had anxiety and depression."
Linda, who has a daughter, Laura, says her life is on pause while she waits for her state pension
Linda left her job as she was mentally too unwell to carry on.
"The doctor said I was to take baby steps and that it was too much to go back to work," she said.
"I couldn't go out there the way I am. It's very hard. I just stay in my house and have blankets to keep warm.
"I do nothing and stay in my house so I have no overheads apart from bills but it's still very hard to make ends meet."
Linda receives £77 a week sickness benefit and does not have a private pension.
In two years' time she will be entitled to a state pension. A full state pension is currently £185.15 a week.
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The mother-of-one said: "I'm so grateful for the vouchers I get to spend at the food bank, they are a lifesaver in what has become a very hard time for me.
"I've worked all my life and this is the first time anything like this has happened to me. I've taken it really badly."
Charles worked on oil rigs all over the world on a month on, month off basis.
He was home in July 2021 when he was taken to hospital in a lot of pain.
Linda said: "He woke me up in the night saying he was in so much pain in his legs and bottom of his back, I had never seen him in that much pain so I called an ambulance.
"But after scans they said they couldn't find anything and sent him home."
Charles Jeffrey died in September 2021
He then returned to hospital a month later saying he could not put up with the pain. He had an MRI scan and he was told his skeleton was covered in lesions.
"They said it was cancer and he was so far gone there wasn't anything they could do for him. I was very shocked," Linda said.
"He started to get confused, lost a lot of weight and passed away."
Linda first met Charles at a hotel disco in Dundee, where she grew up, in 1985.
The couple paid off their mortgage just before he died.
Linda says her wedding day was the best day of her life
Dame Laura Lee, chief executive for cancer care charity Maggie's, said: "It's very difficult for people like Linda when there is a sudden death in the family.
"There is an expectation that people will go back to work, but it's a shock to the system mentally and physically and people can feel very anxious and isolated especially when their partner has died.
"Linda is not alone and the current cost of living crisis in people affected by cancer is the worst I have ever seen.
"Maggie's has experts at our 24 centres across the UK where people can access support. We can also help if someone is worried about money.
"In Linda's case, we also helped signpost her to a local food bank."
Linda said she missed her husband every day.
"He was such a strong character," she said. "He lived life to the full and loved his job because he got to go to lots of different places.
"He would do the cooking when he came back and would experiment on me with all the dishes he had tried while being abroad.
"I loved eating his food and trying all his different recipes. It would be so nice to eat the food that I really like again."
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