[Music]

My husband was diagnosed with cancer in June of last year.

He couldn’t work and because I was looking after him I couldn’t work either.

We lost our house. If it wasn’t for Macmillan I don’t know what would’ve happened.

It’s expensive being ill. It costs money to travel to hospitals,

it costs money to heat the house, it costs money to buy new clothes, it costs money to buy specialist food maybe.

There had to be a certain type of toothbrush, you’re not allowed to use the same flannels, you’re not allowed to use the same towels.

People still have a mortgage to pay, bills to pay, heating bills to pay.

The bills don’t stop coming.

Another example was the clutch on the car went, that was £540.

It’s all stupid little things that just add up to so much money.

Mostly I would like to get involved as soon as somebody’s been diagnosed with cancer,

but I have seen clients who have had their cancer diagnosis for a year or more

and we come along to help them with any problems they have then

It wasn’t until we came to see the consultant a couple of days later

and he actually hand wrote the numbers for Macmillan and said “get in touch with these people, they’re brilliant”.

And when Macmillan did actually come on board that’s when I noticed a huge improvement

because I could just leave that side of things to Lisa and concentrate on just looking after Ian.

They’re feeling absolutely bewildered by the diagnosis and on top of that they’ve got to find a way of accessing benefits.

A lot of the time they have no idea of the benefits system, no idea of any help that’s out there,

and no idea how to get it or access it at all.

Because it’s not just one simple, straightforward form

there are several forms that you have to fill in.

Unfortunately these forms are incredibly long and very complicated and ask an awful lot of searching questions.

Even with Lisa involved, it still took an incredible amount of time.

And we had nothing coming in.

It’s so upsetting to have to deal with that at a time when you just really don’t want to. You cannot focus properly.

Always at the back of your mind is: well I’m here and having to deal with this, what’s happening with Ian? What’s happening with Ian?

If we can take just one worry away from them on the financial side,

if we can take it and help them, support them, do the forms with them and actually get that set up and money coming in,

that’s one less thing for them to worry about.

There should be something in place so you don’t have those initial money worries.

That should be automatic.

If they could be paid within a week to two weeks, people wouldn’t get themselves into debt

and it would be a much less stressful situation for them to be in.

You shouldn’t be penalised for having cancer. At the moment, I do feel that we have been.

Thank God for Macmillan, because I don’t know where I’d have been if it wasn’t for them.