[Music]

My name’s Barbara Wilson and I’m HR Director here at Catlin,

based in the City of London.

I think it’s important to support people with cancer

in the workplace on a whole number of levels.

For the individual who has cancer

I think it’s really important psychologically that they work,

but also financially.

I think for those who have friends or family with cancer,

it’s very important for them to feel that they're supported

in having time off to be with their family or with loved ones

when they need to be.

I’d never force someone to work if they didn't want to, clearly.

People often take the opportunity to want to do something else with their lives,

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 the employer I think there are lots of benefits

to helping employees return to work

or to work during the period of their illness.

It really depends how the individual feels.

In a very hardnosed way,

which I wouldn’t say is the first reason we do it,

is that you’ve invested a lot of time and money in an individual

and to lose that individual is an enormous loss for the organisation.

But there are lots of other softer benefits for colleagues, for managers.

I think it's important that they see that the company is there

not just for the purpose of working, but to support people

and help people at difficult times.

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

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

what we’d be keen to do is explain to them what cancer is about,

what the cancer journey is like and how they can help the individual concerned.

And 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

or just a period for the individual to be at home or whatever is required.

It’s about telling them they can be as fleixble as they’d like to be

and help them understand that

this is not about trying to find an instant solution,

but that they need to find out more from the employee.

And we’d help them do that so we could work through a plan of

how we would help that person throughout the period of the illness.

Very often managers will be concerned that there is a task to be done,

a deadline to be met, and what we will do is

we’ll advise them on how they can work through that

either through employing someone else on a temporary basis

or changing work patterns around or by just enabling an individual to work at home.

Sometimes managers only see one option available

when there are maybe a number

and it’s our job to show them what good practice is

and what the options are available.

It’s interesting, most people know about religious and sex discrimination

but actually cancer is also covered by legistlation.

And it’s important that both employers and employees understand

that it’s illegal to sack someone because they have cancer

or discriminate against them because they have cancer.

I think of all the things that are really important

for employers and employees to understand is that

communicatiuon is absolutely essential to managing work and cancer.

If the employer doesn’t know that an individual is ill

they can’t do anything about that to help them.

The one thing that most often helps an individual

get through their journey with cancer is very often

knowing that their employer is supporting them and

helping them to secure a proper recovery.

Macmillan is definitely the first port of call,

I’ve worked with Macmillan now for some years.

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.