Farming, rural communities and cancer

My uncle was a farmer he had a farm out in a place called Abergavenny in south Wales he past away a few years ago with cancer i can remember going out to the farm and played in the barn a long time ago 

I am a farmers wife and recently we lost my mother in law to cancer. My father in law is finding it really difficult due to them living a quite traditional life where she did all of the house work. We support the best we can but wondered if anyone has any tips to help him adjust?

Thanks!

I can sympathise with your problem with transport. Living on a farm is brilliant until you need to be someone on a regular basis then logistics aren't quite so appealing!

Good luck with your cancer journey. 

I am sorry to read about the loss of your mother-in-law to cancer CoastalHaze .

Thank you for sharing your experience here and for supporting others.  I hope that other members will be along soon to offer their tips to help your father-in-law adjust. 

We would also like to continue the conversation about travel and transport, as we know this affects so many. 

If you don't mind me asking, how did you manage to attend appointments as a family and how did you find ways of navigating this during lambing season? 

How far away was the hospital? It must have added so much extra pressure during appointments and treatment.

For the surrounding villages around me it would be several buses and likely a couple of hours. We were fortunate to be able to drive to appointments when a family member was being treated for cancer, but this was costly. With the rising fuel prices this would be even more challenging now.

At lambing and calving time we always needed someone, usually two people, on the farm so it meant that we had to do a bit of juggling work with other family members who don't live on the farm and often might need to call on neighbouring farmers. We were very lucky to have good neighbours who we could count on to come and help

So encouraging you had neighbours willing to help out - a true testament to the strong sense of community in farming.

I do worry for those who don't have friends/family nearby and if they might delay treatment and appointments to prioritise lambing and other farm tasks.

It's such a shame that all the cottage hospitals are being shut down or have already been shut down as these could now play such an important role in delivering services much closer to home for patients.

If meal times are difficult for your father-in-law, perhaps some bulk purchase of freezer good quality oven-ready meals and a simple to operate microwave may help.