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Today we’ve been launching the work and cancer toolkit

and it’s aimed at really three groups of people. The employer,

person with cancer and the carer of somebody with cancer.

I think the toolkit is a really helpful product.

I’ve been involved with Macmillan on the national employer’s forum

to develop the toolkit, so really encouraged that they’ve

talked to employers about what would be helpful. I can see

it being used by my organisation through my occupational health service,

my line managers and my HR team to give them access to information

advice, guidance and reassurance

so that they know they’re doing the right thing for our employees

who are going through cancer.

npower were invited to be part of the forum.

We were able to input our views and advice as a large company

and Macmillan listened to what we had to say as well.

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At the moment there are about 700,000 people with cancer

of working age in the UK and that’s set to grow considerably.

In fact, if you look at a whole range of long term and chronic conditions,

something like 21 million people in the UK workforce

will have a long term condition, or at least one,

by 2030 and that’s a very significant proportion of the workforce.

Cancer is really now becoming a chronic condition.

Many people are living with their disease for long periods of time

and are struggling with being able to stay at work.

It’s nausea, it’s pain,

it’s fatigue like most of us in this room have never known it.

It’s reduced mobility, it's incontinence, it’s lack of self esteem.

It’s all of those that are being worked through.

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I work in a team of 18 people and last November,

Julie in our team was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Julie being diagnosed had a massive impact on the team.

It was just a massive shock; we hadn’t experienced anything that like before

When it came to the time when Julie was ready to come back to work,

so when her treatment was finished,

we knew she would have to be eased back in

because she works full time and it’s a busy job.

There’s so many different options when it comes to returning for work

and probably the most important thing is

thinking about what is right for that individual.

If a manager were to come to us with a question about

one of their employees who told them that they’d got cancer,

we would explain to them

the impact of the illness on work day to day

and the options available to them as a manager

in terms of offering part time working or flexible working.

I think for HR it’s absolutely critical that they really look at

the behaviours and skills that managers have

so that they can make the difference between someone

coming back or not coming back to work.

Your policies aren’t worth the paper they’re written on unless

your managers actually know how to behave appropriately.

For cancer patients, returning to work is a sign of normality.

It’s stopping this thing getting in the way of real life.

And it’s as much the sense of normality as it is

the financial impact of it.

We all have choices and it’s important that people

take the time to think what’s the right thing for them

but I think it’s important to realise

that the world of work isn’t closed to you

and the fact that you have cancer doesn’t mean

that you can’t work or you shouldn’t work.

For those who actually are in secure employment,

the first priority is to try and keep them there because I think

that is a real issue. Once you’re out

and into the benefits system, no matter what we do, it is

more challenging to get people back to work.

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It’s important for employers to support carers

as well as people living with cancer

because there’s an estimated 1.1 million people

caring for someone with cancer in the UK today

and many of those carers are juggling full or part time employment

with caring. The most important thing employers can do is

actually speak to carers about flexible working.

Carers do have the right to request flexible working

and this can make a huge difference to their ability to juggle work and care.

The proportion of those in work who are carers is going to increase significantly

so this will be a very real challenge

for managing caring and employment duties in the future,

yet another challenge for employers.

All the research that Macmillan have done shows that

going to work and being productive is part of the recovery process

and people want to feel normal through their treatment

and feel as productive as possible.

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Whilst these are all human stories,

this is a big issue economically and socially

and most people who have long term conditions want to continue to work.

We need the system; GPs, the welfare system, employers,

to think about what people can still do, not what they can’t do.

All like minded people getting in a room

thinking about it, we need everybody else,

it’s the people out there who aren’t here

that we need to send this message to.

Macmillan is definitely the first port of call.

Macmillan has a great source of information and advice

through the toolkits that they’ve recently produced

but also through the helpline.

I think communication is absolutely critical

and no one should be afraid of cancer.

Everyone should be prepared to discuss it openly and freely

and work to get over it.