Returning back to the UK

Hello all, 

I am a British citizen and was living in the UK until the summer of 2015, I came to visit my family abroad and to cut the story short ended up unwell, lots of tests were run to be diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. I had a small child who has special needs and decided to have my treatment in my home country. 

Now I am ready to return back to the UK at the end of this year but I need to find advice on continuity of treatment, housing, schooling and benefits. I have to admit I am very stressed about all of this but my son has not been given a good healthcare here and its time to return to his birth country where he has his dad and his paternal family. Me and his dad are divorced.

Thank you for your time.

  • Hello Marrita and welcome to the Cancer Chat community.

    I'm very sorry about your diagnosis and that your son hasn't been receiving the best healthcare in your home country.

    It sounds like you have a lot to sort out and it's completely understandable why you would be finding this stressful. I've found some information about using the NHS when you return to live in the UK on the gov.uk website but it may be worth getting in touch with Macmillan as they should be able to give you more information about this and the advice you're seeking about housing and benefits. Citizen's advice may also be able to help.

    I hope the resources I've provided will be a good starting point but hopefully some of our members who have been in a similar situation will share their advice and recommendations with you soon as well.

    Kind regards,

    Steph, Cancer Chat Moderator