So have you lost a lot of income or are you on sickness benefit?

Well, my contract as such is I’m on full pay for 100 days and half-pay for 100 days, but I was very lucky because about four years ago, somebody came and did all my finances, went through my finances, and I had Critical Illness Insurance and an Income Protection Insurance, so I had quite a big lump sum payout from one insurance company, and my Income Protection makes up to sixty per cent of my salary, so when I go on to half salary and when they stop paying me if I don’t go back to work, I will still have a reasonable income. Not as much as I would if I was working, but certainly, financially I will be reasonably, solvent. Won’t be obviously as much as if I was working, but I won’t be destitute.

You said you had to go back for financial reasons. How did it work out financially, being off sick from your company?

Well at first they were very good. The first time around they were very good, you know, just putting me on half pay and things like that, which was good. But at the time wed just bought a new house and we had two houses at once. So we had a huge mortgage so a lot of my savings went and because they left my job open after 6 months I really felt obliged to go back, and so I went back full-time straight away within a month of finishing my chemo.

But I did go back for a year but then when the cancer came back this time obviously I don’t think work was interested anymore anyway and they were a little bit less compassionate this time, you know. And it was hard, you know, the company car going and, you know, the big salary going and going onto benefits. But, you know, I’ve now moved home, got a lesser home and you know, things are fine. Money’s not everything.

Have there been any other financial implications of your illness?

Not, I don’t think so, no because it was so near, I was so near retirement. I suppose the only thing is that in fact I retired on grounds of ill health which meant I retired about two months earlier than, two or three months earlier than I normally would have done, but in a way that was because if I hadn’t done it that way, if I’d gone onto my normal time there wouldve been financial implications in the sense that I wouldve lost out on some pay. And in the event I didn’t. The bit of time you miss gets made up when it’s on health. And but I could have done supply teaching after retirement if I hadn’t gone out on health grounds. Actually I wouldn’t have wanted to because as things are time is too precious to spend on that sort of thing. But it’s quite useful, I mean it wouldve been quite useful money.

I was working when I had the scan, and then when they told me what it was, that it was a cyst this size, I knew I’d have to go in hospital and have it removed, so I knew that was going to be quite a’ by the size of it, it would be a major, not a keyhole operation and so on, so I put it to the boss, and he had a word with his boss, and basically, they said they couldn’t really keep the job open for me on a long-term basis and whatever. So I said, ‘Right, I’ll have to give it up, then.

And that was basically how it came about, I had to give it up. I couldn’t physically have done it since the cancer, anyway, because of the hernia, now, because, obviously, being shop-work, it was a lot of lifting and physical work, and with the DVT’ there was a lot of standing, so’ it spoilt it for me anyway. But I’d only been working there about ten months, I think, so’ and I think you’ve got to be working somewhere for about two years to be in with a chance of, you know, they’ve got to keep your job open until such times and so on. So it wasn’t really discrimination.

So has that have a big impact, financially?

It did have an impact, yes, I must admit. Well, it’s still having an impact. And I mean, I didn’t earn a fortune because I didn’t work that many hours, but what I did earn more or less paid the mortgage of a month, so yes, that has made a difference.

I’ve lost a lot of income. I was made bankrupt in the beginning of the year, well 2 years a year back now, from April, through financial problems that my husband and I had. Basically he was in and out of work a lot in the end. He was a very professional man to begin with. Alcohol got the better of him, started taking out loans, all this had to be paid back, which didn’t work. We had a trust deed signed because he wasn’t, he gave up work while I was ill, to supposedly look after me, but it didn’t quite work like that. And once I got back on my feet a year after I was ill I started to, the solicitors rang me about this trust deed. And he had also left me with quite a bit of debt when he left in the November, and a solicitor suggested that I go down the lines of bankruptcy, so I was made bankrupt in April last year.

I do 3 hours therapeutic work but I possibly could do more work, but, the financial situation I’m in is, I’m on disability and I don’t get any maintenance, so I’m on benefits and I’m allowed to earn a certain amount a week which covers my 3 hours, so if I go and do more work that then puts everything else in jeopardy. And I know I’m not able to do like, so 16 hours work, which I would have to do, but I can’t, I don’t do that, so I’m still doing 3 hours therapeutic work.

Which benefits have you had?

I’m trying to think what it’s actually called. I’m not sure what it’s called because I, I mean I could go and look it up, whether it’s incapacity or but it’s something on those, on those lines. She actually completed the, brought it up with me, said “Have you applied for anything like this? And I don’t want to be embarrassing by talking about money but,” and I said no I hadn’t, I’d actually had forms at an earlier stage but had found it impossible to fill it in at the time because I was on treatment and my mind just was soggy, I couldn’t concentrate. And then someone had told me that it was unlikely I’d get anything anyway because, so she said “Oh that’s not true, it’s not means tested, it’s according to need and if you don’t mind I’ll fill it in for you.” And, and she did and it was accepted.

What do you need to do to qualify for that then?

For Disability Living Allowance?

You have to well you have to fill in these forms that ask you questions both about personal care and about mobility and, so they ask you things like how long it would take you to walk a certain distance. I can’t remember how far it was now, 10 yards, 30 yards, something like that. And how much pain you’re in and those sorts of questions. It’s a form that covers a lot of disabilities so there are a lot of questions that don’t apply like ‘Can you use your arms and legs?’ that don’t apply to me. And ‘Do you need help with dressing and washing?’ and those sorts of things. And then theres three rates of allowance you can get, theres higher, middle and lower. At the moment I’m on the higher rate, which is good. But the MacMillan nurse helped me fill it in and that was, she was very useful in that respect.

The travelling up and down, I’ve had to go in and out of London, and I don’t get any help with that, so I’ve had to pay all the fares for that, which has been, you know, it’s quite expensive going in and out of London, but I haven’t got anywhere locally.

I could have transport – I have had transport home a couple of times, but the problem with that is, if there are other people in your area, you have to go at seven o’clock in the morning, and you’re there all day. So in a way I’d rather pay, go by train, and be a law unto myself as to what time I go and what time I come back. But, I don’t think it’s financially it’s affecting me any other way really.

Have there been any other financial implications? You mentioned travel insurance to me earlier.

Yes, going on holiday, travel insurance is difficult. You have to search around for a company and then you literally have to pay through the nose for it, or if the premium is reasonable, your excess is’ You have to pay the first thousand pounds, so if you are taken ill while you’re abroad it costs you a fortune. That’s one difficulty. But I have been on about four foreign holidays. I haven’t let it stop me! But it is’ that is difficult, that sort of thing.