A post from Owain Rees, Regional Fundraising Manager with our charity partner, Macmillan Cancer Support:
We’ve been delighted to work with PayingTooMuch.com since 2019, and during that time support from customers and staff has raised nearly £50,000 to support people living with cancer – the equivalent of more than 1,000 people accessing a Cancer Information Nurse Specialist via the Macmillan Support Line.
Like PayingTooMuch.com, we recognise the importance of providing accessible, reliable and practical support for people when they need it - for many people the Support Line is their first port of call when they have questions or concerns relating to cancer.
Recently, we’ve seen a greater demand for our Support Line services than ever before, with a 35% increase in phone calls and a 14% increase in grant applications. Cancelled treatments, financial concerns and feelings of isolation resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic continue to have a huge impact on people affected by cancer.
As an organisation, we are proud to have adapted our ways of working to meet this challenge, retraining staff and changing our ways of working to ensure that we can continue to provide vital services at both national and local level.
Our focus has now shifted onto how we will respond to challenges in the future and what actions we can take to mitigate these now.
Many NHS staff, including 400 Macmillan nurses, have been redeployed to the front line to help respond to Covid-19. We have been proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with the NHS during this pandemic, but there is a concern about how these changes to regular healthcare services are impacting cancer care.
Some studies predict that this shortage in staff and disruption to treatment will see cancer related deaths increase by 20% over the next 12 months – that’s more than 33,000 people.
Macmillan has a responsibility to the 3 million people living with cancer in the UK to prevent this from happening. We believe that it is essential that cancer doesn’t become the ‘Forgotten C’ during the pandemic, and we’re campaigning right now to make sure that people living with cancer can access regular treatments, and those with suspected cancer symptoms have the confidence to visit their GP.
Please take the time to review the attached ‘Signs and Symptoms’ information and speak to your GP where you have concerns.
For anyone living with cancer, or caring for someone with cancer, the attached ‘We’re Here to Help’ document contains information on how to access practical, clinical and financial support through Macmillan.
Macmillan is committed to campaigning for change but despite these efforts, it remains highly likely that the number of people with complex cancer needs will increase over the next few years, and at a sharper rate than we have ever seen before.
Our ability to meet this demand will be limited because of to the significant impact the pandemic has had on our income: Macmillan is predicting losses of around £100m this year, approximately half of our income.
Our response to his has been to launch the Covid-19 Emergency Appeal, asking businesses, groups and individuals from across the UK for their support in addressing the urgent needs of people with cancer. For many we are the only source of support available at the moment and we cannot let them down - cancer won’t wait for Covid-19 to go away.
Please help us to safeguard our services by making a donation to our Emergency Appeal and sharing this information with your networks.
Thank you for taking the time to read this information and enormous thanks to our fantastic partners at PayingTooMuch.com for helping us share this messaging.
Owain Rees
