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Kate's Story
‘I was out of breath all the time, sometimes I would just lie on the sofa and do nothing. I couldn’t talk to anyone as my husband’s mum is very ill and with the money problems we were having, he just had to work all the time, so couldn’t be there. I found it really difficult to cope with my cancer diagnosis, as I already have a history of depression. Other than having a health visitor who saw me once a month, I had no support. I was never signposted to anywhere where I could get help.’
Kate, 39, Northumberland
Kate is a mother-of-one and has income worries. Despite having a history of depression, Kate did not receive any emotional support after she was diagnosed with cancer. Her mental health problems compounded an already difficult experience of living with cancer and she felt she could have benefitted from support navigating the care system.
This year, more than 300,000 people in England alone will receive the life-changing diagnosis of cancer. For people like Kate, personal characteristics and circumstances – like race, gender, age, sexual orientation, existing health conditions and economic status – might lead to vast differences in their health, and the type of care and support they receive. These are known as health inequalities.
What do health inequalities really mean?
Health inequalities are unfair and avoidable differences in people’s health, care and treatment. They are one of the biggest avoidable costs faced by the NHS. The failure to reach and support every person with preventative measures costs the health service up to £20 billion per year.
Health inequalities mean that people face poorer access to vital support and services when they need them the most. We know that wider societal inequalities, and environmental risk factors related to smoking, nutrition and alcohol use are part of the problem.
But, with more people living longer with cancer – expected to reach 4 million by 2030 – we need communities and services that can accommodate the distinct unfairness people face after the life-changing shock of a cancer diagnosis. Living needs to mean living well – equally for everybody.
Unfair differences also happen at the end of life. People facing unfairness are more likely to be admitted to A&E in their last year of life, and a have higher chance of dying in hospital against their wishes.
A spotlight on the North East
Kate’s story is far from being the only one. There are many cases of unfair differences in health, care, and treatment in the North East of England.
These unfair differences mean people have worse experiences of cancer care and treatment. For example:
But this should not be the case. Where you live, who you are, and what you are paid should not affect what happens to you after a cancer diagnosis.
The beginning of the race
The release of the NHS Long Term Plan in January fired a starting gun for action on unfair differences. But whilst it included more than a chapter on health inequalities, it did not have a clear plan for how to solve these problems.
Today in Newcastle, Macmillan started a national discussion on how to address unfair differences and meet everyone’s health, care, and treatment needs.
The NHS was created to make healthcare available to everybody. Our new report Health Inequalities: Time to Talk shows how far we still have to go to create health and care systems that genuinely work for everyone.
Every person in the UK has the right to equal, high quality and personalised cancer care, regardless of who they are, how much they’re paid, or where they live. Campaign with us to make sure this is a reality for Kate, and the thousands of people just like her.
All names have been changed.
You can read the report here.
