Financial Help For Cancer Patients
A fund set up to help those affected financially because of their cancer diagnosis.
A year ago we launched our bridging fund to help those that are suffering financially due to their cancer diagnosis.
Why do we need this fund?
Let's use as an example patient X, they are a pensioner so receive a small British pension, which we all know doesn’t get far in this current economic climate, they are diagnosed with cancer and apart from the normal trips to hospitals, they even end up having to go to the mainland for further treatment. This leaves patient X very weak and in need of constant care. So patient X’s partner has to stop work to care for them full time, so now they are really struggling financially.
The Spanish system does provide some help, but to get this first they have to process a DEPENDENCIA claim, this can take months, and even when it comes through, depending on the grade awarded they may not receive a lot of financial help.
Social services sometimes are able to offer help with food vouchers or other bills, but not always, this depends a lot on the municipality the person lives in, and even if they do, it can again take a while to process this assistance.
The AECC are often a big help and will provide some financial assistance, normally in the form of a few one off payments to cover living expenses such as rent, etc.
Our statutes do not allow us to use money that has been donated to our charity to give financial aid, therefore we set up the bridging fund so those who would like to know that their money is being use to give financial aid to patients in need can donate directly to this fund.
If we have money in our bridging fund we can offer further help to patients in need, for example we can help pay their electricity or phone bills until the other benefits kick in. Or we can cover costs that others refuse to cover such as pet food.
The Bridging Fund benefits from lots of small, regular donations, if 10 people donate €5 a month we can use that to go towards a patient’s electricity bill. When there are no claims from the fund we will just let the money accumulate so we have more on hand to help when a new claim is made.
You can find out more about our Bridging Fund and set up one off and recurring donations here
