Laois mum of four with cancer makes urgent appeal to cut costs for patients

A YOUNG mother-of-four with lung cancer has appealed to the government to recognise the desperate financial struggles faced by many people with serious illnesses.

Laois woman Samantha Vaughan is helping to spearhead an Irish Cancer Society campaign, urging the government to cut costs and fund a national strategy in Budget 2025.

The 48-year-old, who was diagnosed only by chance last year, worked as an area manager with Fast Foods until a cancer nodule was found in her left lung. Now just a year over her surgery, she will be on cancer treatment for at least three years.

The Borris-in-Ossory resident explained: “Going from a full-time wage to nothing in a short space of time is so stressful and a lot of pressure to bear and needless to say it doesn’t help with what you are having to deal with when you have a cancer diagnosis or indeed any type of serious or chronic disease.

“It’s morally wrong for the government not to be helping with the financial costs of becoming seriously or chronically ill.

“I’m the type of person who always believes others need help before me, but through the encouragement of the medics I realised that I too needed and deserved financial help such as a medical card. I didn’t ask or want to become sick. Trying to live off €200 per week is not easy.” Ms Vaughan’s children range in age from 30 to 15 and along with travel costs to Cork University Hospital (CUH), tolls, parking fees, a mortgage and living expenses there is not much left in the kitty as she was the primary breadwinner in the house as her husband also lives with an illness.

As well as calling for sustained, recurrent funding for the National Cancer Strategy, the Irish Cancer Society wants the government to “cut the costs” in the budget and stop the endless charges on vulnerable cancer patients and their families.

They are calling for funding for hospitals to abolish car parking charges for cancer patients, medical cards for all cancer patients upon diagnosis, until their treatment is finished and automatic entitlement to the Household Benefits Package and Fuel Allowance and Additional Needs Payment.

Other areas they are calling on the government to not be found wanting in are with the introduction of electricity credits for cancer patients in palliative care for the remainder of their life, abolition of prescription charges for all medical card holders, reduction of the Drugs Payment Scheme threshold to at least €72 per month and expansion of the Domiciliary Care Allowance eligibility criteria from 16 to 18 years of age.

Ms Vaughan added that getting a cancer diagnosis and then grappling with the financial implications felt and continues to feel like a “huge burden” at a time when she should have been resting.

“You're constantly trying to think ahead of the cancer. I had to wait three months for a medical card to cover me and that was after a huge battle to get it. I thought I would be back at work after a few months as I’m that type of person but to be told it could be three years or longer is a massive blow. I want to give back what I can and help others.’ Ms Vaughan is determined to highlight this burdening issue, help others who have to deal with an illness which “shouldn’t become a financial crisis”.