Benefits help!!

Hi  and a very warm welcome to the online community

I'm sorry to read that you've recently been diagnosed with melanoma. I was diagnosed 4 years ago now so can totally understand how you're probably feeling right now.

There are no benefits that you're entitled to because of being diagnosed with melanoma I'm afraid, well none that I'm aware of, with the exception that you are entitled to get any medical prescriptions free of charge for 5 years. You need to apply for this via your GP and you'll then receive a card which entitles you to free prescriptions.

You could give Macmillan's welfare rights team a call on 0808 808 0000 and they might be able to tell you what benefits you can claim or tell you which government department you need to contact to find out about unemployment benefit, etc. It's free to call and the Support Line is available 7 days a week from 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday, and 9am to 9pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Where are you in your treatment? I had a look at your profile but you haven't completed it yet. Have you had a wide local excision (WLE) and optional sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) yet?

When you have a minute, it would be really useful if you could pop something about your journey so far into your profile as it really helps others when answering or looking for someone with a similar diagnosis. It also means that you don't have to keep repeating yourself. To do this click on your username and then select 'Profile'. You can amend it at any time and if you're not sure what to write you can take a look at mine by clicking on my username.

Hi

I'm just checking in to see how you're doing after you were diagnosed with melanoma a few months ago. I assume by now you've had the WLE and SLNB. Have you had the results back from those?

Also did you get chance to give the Macmillan welfare rights team a call to find out what benefits you might be eligible for?

x