'I spent �1,400 on travel and parking'

Sandra Johnstone was diagnosed in 2000

Travel and parking costs for cancer patients are so high they are effectively a "stealth tax", Macmillan Cancer Relief says.

One woman speaks about the financial burden of her treatment.

Only now she is in remission has Sandra Johnstone had time to reflect on the financial costs of her treatment for leukaemia.

The 57-year-old mother-of-two has spent about �1,400 on travel and parking in the last year.

The majority of that was during a four-month intensive drug treatment course last summer during which she had three hospital appointments a week.

Ms Johnstone, from Esher, Surrey, said: "At the time you concentrate on getting better, but the costs really add up.

You do not need this added worry Sandra Johnstone

"There are grants available but I was never told about them and it is demeaning having to ask.

"I have worked all my life, but because of my illness I have sold my house and have given up work. You do not need this added worry."

Ms Johnstone, who was working as a childminder before she was diagnosed in late 2000, has made about 100 50-mile round trips from her home to the Royal Marsden in Sutton, London, over the last year for scans, drug treatment and bone marrow tests.

The hospitals charges �1 an hour for parking or �10 for a day.

"It does not seem much, but when you make as many trips as I did it does add up and means you have less money for other things.

"But it is not just me it affects. My daughter had to take time off work to take me to hospitals for some of the treatment."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version