Call to meet spiralling travel costs faced by children with cancer

Charity urges Government to set up new £5m fund to help ill youngsters and cash-strapped families

A CHILD with cancer was forced to go on an 800-mile round trip for treatment, a charity has warned as it called on the Government to fund young people’s travel costs. Research reveals adults typically only have to travel half as far, and spend half as much on journeys, for treatment than children.

Younger patients, who often require specialist treatment available at a smaller number of centres across the UK, typically spend £180 a month travelling. Their average journey is a 60mile round trip. However, in one case CLIC Sargent, a children’s cancer charity, said a child had to make an 800mile round trip. In addition, treatment for childhood cancer can last anything from months to more than three years – meaning families face making the journey many times.

The issue has led the charity to launch a petition urging the Government to set up a Young Cancer Patient Travel Fund. It wants to see £5million provided annually to help cover costs.

Under the current NHS Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme, just 6 per cent of families receive financial support with travel costs.

Kate Lee, the chief executive of CLIC Sargent, said: “No parent should ever have to worry about not having enough money to take their child to hospital for cancer treatment.

“The current travel cost scheme is not fit for purpose and available to too few families. [They] are really struggling financially. This is not good enough and the Government needs to set up a fund so that families can focus on their child, rather than worrying about mounting bills.”

Nicky Brown’s son, Oliver, 10, was diagnosed with blood cancer in August 2016. The family live in Plymouth but their nearest specialist treatment centre is in Bristol – 120 miles away.

Oliver was given the all-clear in May 2017, but relapsed earlier this year and is currently in hospital after having undergone a second stem-cell transplant. Mrs Brown said: “On a good day, the journey takes just over two hours each way, but with the holiday traffic over the summer, it has sometimes taken as long as four hours each way.

“It costs us £80 for a return trip [to Bristol] – something we do every weekend. [And] we estimate with wear and tear, it costs about £120 per journey.”

A Department of Health spokesman said: “Last year through our NHS Low Income Scheme, we helped over 337,000 applicants to pay for health costs, including travelling.”