Hi I'm shelly and I had breast cancer,i had radiotherapy last week and hopefully im on the road to recovery,The last 5 months have been the worse not just physically and mentally but financially too.i have tried to get financial help to support me while I was unable to work,I tried from the moment I was diagnosed with breast cancer to ease the stress when I was recovering, My husband has taking time of work to take me to every appointment to which he was not paid so we were down on his income too ,and he was looking after me after.I worked till the day before my operation so I would have some sort of income for as long as possible before I would have the statuary sick pay you get.Needless to say the statutory sick pay doesn't cover your normal bills and because my husband looked after me,his wages were effected too, causing so much stress,sleepless nights,thank god we had alittle savings because that's what we have been using to pay our mortgage and the other bills that don't stop coming just because you have/had cancer.Im angry because the system hasn't helped me one bit,I would have had help if I was on benefits, I have been told this several times because my husbands in full employment we cannot get any help even though he s taken time off to look after me.I have tried all different avenues so which have failed.So next week I have to return to a very physical job caring for others because I simply can not afford to stay at home and recover physically or mentally, my body is still hurting,and mentally I haven't even begun to process what happened to me and my body and how I move forward from having beeast cancer .I never asked to have cancer and never expected to get it but here we are.Im angry I had cancer,I'm angry that I have to worry like I am and most of all I feel really sad that the one time I needed support it wasn't there.
Kind regards shelly
