Sally ward, 67
BY
CANCER patient Sally has been told by doctors that she must keep warm because her chemotherapy can cause severe sideeffects if she becomes cold.
But with her monthly energy bills set to almost triple, she faces having to fork out a quarter of her income just to avoid further risking her health.
The pensioner, who lives on just over £800 a month, has been undergoing gruelling treatment since being diagnosed with late stage-three cancer last year.
She said: “Due to the chemo I’m on if I get cold my mouth, throat and chest can go into spasm.
“It feels like there’s a lump of Lego stuck in my throat and I struggle to breathe and can’t get the words out.
“It can also be very dangerous, as my registrar has recently told me there’s a chance this can happen to my jugular vein – that can be fatal.”
Sally from Walberton, West Sussex, is one of the generation of women who lost out when their state pension age was suddenly increased. She gets around £202 per week from her state pension and a small private pension from her previous work in financial management for charities.
She currently pays £81 a month for gas and electricity, but has been told this will increase to £201 when her fixed-term contract finishes at the end of next month. It means almost a quarter of her income will go on fuel. But when she appealed to her fuel company explaining her health situation it referred her to the National Debtline. She said: “After working for 50 years and being financially independent and not in debt my whole life, it felt like a real kick in the teeth.” Sally, who lives alone in a two-bedroom council house, said: “I don’t know how I’m going to keep reasonably warm and be able to eat well paying this. All the worry and sheer despair is absolutely awful.”
Now Sally is trying to ration electricity and central heating in the hope she can “bank” credit to offset against future bills. She said: “I’m in my bed with five layers on, but I’m still struggling with my breath and speech. “I’ve tried to keep in my bedroom without the central heating on. I have a very efficient, small electric fire that gives small bursts of heat. “If I have a shower I have to rush in and out, and cooking can be a nightmare as when my hands get cold they lose all feeling and I drop things.
“I’m constantly looking at my meter and trying to calculate how to make savings here and there. It’s just wrong.”
Due to chemo, the cold could be fatal