Help for sufferer in drugs cost row
Monday 18th August 2008, 6:59PM BST.
A Telford woman who is campaigning for free prescriptions for cancer sufferers is to receive help from an anonymous well-wisher.
Fiona Stevenson, who has breast cancer, currently has to pay out between £35 and £85 each month on prescription charges, but now the mystery Good Samaritan is to help her with those bills.
Fiona, of Little Dawley, said: “I think it is because I am trying to help people, someone has stepped in to help me.
“The person who will help pay my charges was apparently touched by cancer in his family many years ago and the system has not changed since then.”
She has described the charges for cancer patients as “a tax on the ill” and is calling for people with chronic illnesses to get free prescriptions, now that the cost of living is spiralling as the credit crunch bites.
Mrs Stevenson, 40, who lives with her 51-year-old fiance Stephen Smith, said: “Epileptics and diabetics get free prescriptions and so should people with cancer.
“The financial implications of cancer are horrendous and we are desperate for a re-think on prescription charges right now, because the credit crunch is making things worse.
“It’s been really tough, because it’s bad enough to have everything you treasure taken away by the cancer, but the lack of advice and support just makes it worse.”
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people are not epileptics or diabetics they are people who suffer from epilepsy or diabetes. My daughter was diagnosed with epilepsy 10 years ago hates being referred to as an EPILEPTIC so please think before using these derogative terms
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I have a blood clotting disorder if I do not take my warfarin which I also have to pay for on prescription it would be fatal for me not to take them, I get a prepayment but it annoys me to think diabetics etc get their prescriptions free, oh I also had cancer and yes paid for my prescription then too!!!!!
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Our Government offloads Billions of pounds each year to countries in Africa and Asia from the Department For International Development, yet forgets about the tens of thousands of people here suffering from severe illness who need aid and funding with perscriptions.
Charity begins at Home!
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Basically ALL prescriptions should be free.
We pay for Scottish people to have free prescriptions so the people of Wales and England should not have to pay for them either.
I agree we send billions in aid to other countries yet we NEGLECT our own people in this country.
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