I had surgery for bowel cancer in 2009, in January.

So, I started then, chemotherapy in Febuary.

It made me feel very tired,

and particularly it made me feel cold, more than I've ever experienced.

Sometimes, when the temperature outside drops about one degree,

it feels to me as if it's gone down ten degrees, it's an incredible feeling.

A slight breeze feels like you've opened the door of a fridge.

That can be quite uncomfortable.

Because heating is so important to people with cancer, especially myself,

I need to feel warm to make my spirit lift.

And if my spirits are up, the family don't seem to worry so much about me.

If I'm cold, and I'm feeling depressed,

they can see that straight away, and all of a sudden they start worrying.

So my worrying affects the whole family.

That shouldn't be right for anybody.

The drop in my income is roughly about 50-60%, which is quite significant.

There are a number of times you won't have the heating on as much as you would like,

again, you're worried because you can't afford to have it on for that amount of time.

You're looking at whether it's better to put on another jumper, put on your coat even.

Because you think, well I don't know if actually we can afford that.

Because you've got to pay the utility bills, you've got to pay the mortgage,

you've got to pay for food.

We've got grandchildren, so you want to buy them presents for Christmas coming up,

so it's very, very difficult.

Well if there was a fuel payment for people under 60 years of age,

that would be a great benefit,

and that would give us a little extra to say yes, we can have the heating on for an extra three or four hours today, tomorrow and the next day,

and that would be covered, and that would be very beneficial.