Seek out all the advice and help you can get if you have cancer

Richard Pugh, head of partnerships for Macmillan Cancer Support in Wales, outlines the support that can be given if you get a diagnosis

TRYING to come to terms with a cancer diagnosis is one thing. Trying to do so at a time when the NHS has been thrown into disarray by a global pandemic, and the wider economic environment is growing increasingly harsh, is another thing altogether.

Across Wales people with cancer are trying to do just that.

Coping with the huge pressures that cancer can place on people’s lives has never been about coping with its clinical impacts alone. Those impacts are also emotional. They are financial as well.

For many people with cancer, money is the next biggest worry after their diagnosis and treatment. Even with cancer, there are still bills to be paid and those bills are beginning to soar as the UK’s cost of living crisis deepens.

Even before this crisis began, 87% of people with cancer in Wales experienced some kind of financial impact from their diagnosis – an average increase of £734 a month on top of their usual expenditure.

It means that people with cancer, many of whom will have already experienced unimaginable anxiety due to delayed diagnoses or treatments during the pandemic, are now also having to cope with their diagnosis at a time of soaring financial pressure as well.

For many people with cancer the rising cost of living is forcing them to make very difficult choices indeed. To choose between paying for food or heating. Between petrol to get to appointments, or the vital and essential things needed to help them through treatment.

Macmillan in Wales has always invested heavily in advice and support services that help people to better manage the financial impact of cancer.

Now more than ever it is an investment that we are proud of, and one that is making a huge difference.

During 2021 alone, Macmillan Cancer Support gave over £698,000 to more than 1,900 people living with cancer in Wales.

On top of this, and in recognition of the extraordinary challenges now facing cancer patients in 2022, Macmillan has also made an extra £3.5m in emergency funds available to help people meet their escalating bills across the UK.

As many cancer patients on lowincomes struggle with the financial fallout of a diagnosis, compounded by the current cost of living crisis and Covid-19, we are urging anyone in need to seek our support.

That support is needed now more than ever before.

During the first six weeks of this year alone we provided more than £88,000 in grants to help support vulnerable patients in Wales who are struggling financially.

Over a 12-week period till the end of January, we provided more than £78,000 to support people living with cancer in Wales with their heating bills alone – more than one in four of those supported were in their 70s or older.

It is a situation that is only set to get worse.

Domestic energy prices have risen by as much as 50% this month, with further increases expected in October when the energy price cap will be raised again.

We are already hearing from people who are being forced to visit food banks while at the same time going through chemotherapy, radiotherapy or invasive surgery.

That is why we have put a nationwide network of welfare benefits advisers in place to try and alleviate some of the pressure for anyone affected by cancer in Wales.

We now desperately need every cancer patient to be routinely signposted to welfare benefits advice from the earliest stage of their diagnosis.

If you have cancer, please seek financial advice and support as early as you can.

If you are a professional involved in cancer care, please let people know about the services and support that is available. It really can help to take some of the pressure off

No-one should have to cope with a cancer diagnosis while worrying about how to keep a roof over their head or food on the table.

If you have been affected by cancer, or would like to find out more about what financial support is available, please call Macmillan for free on 0808 808 00 00 or visit macmillan.org.uk