ALYN and Deeside’s MP showed support for a new report highlighting the ‘devastating’ consequences and worry a cancer diagnosis can bring financially.

Macmillan Cancer Support have produced a report that focusses on people’s individual experiences of the financial impact of cancer and highlights three particular policy areas; the implementation of Universal Credit, the support banks and building societies give people living with cancer and the cost of travel insurance.

At the Parliament launch, over 100 people, many of them living with cancer, came to the Houses of Parliament to share stories of the financial barriers they face after a diagnosis.

Mark Tami MP said: “One in two of us born after 1960 will get cancer in our lifetime, and while the physical and emotional consequences of cancer are well-known, the financial impact of a diagnosis can be devastating.

“The financial impact of cancer can move someone from a position of relative security to one of financial distress within a short space of time and people living with cancer are still not getting the right support they need from the government and from financial service providers.

“I will continue to work with Macmillan Cancer Support on their campaign to ensure people living with cancer get the right support and I would welcome hearing more constituents living with cancer on the impact their diagnosis has had on them.”

Macmillan are asking the Government to introduce the legal requirement of a duty of care to ensure all financial services providers act in the best interests of their customers.

The charity is calling for regulators to work with the insurance industry to ensure that affordable and appropriate travel insurance is available to people after a cancer diagnosis by conducting a full market study.

Concerns were also raised that Universal Credit is failing to meet the needs of people with cancer, with too many losing out on vital support. Macmillan are calling for the Government to make it easier for organisations like Macmillan to support people through their claim.