Tyler’s Story

Tyler, 24, was diagnosed with testicular cancer during winter last year. Here, Tyler, who has autism and learning disabilities, speaks about the impact of the rising costs of living when going through cancer treatment.

“The biggest financial impact that my family and I found whilst going through my chemotherapy was the cost of travel. I live in Weston-super-Mare and all of my treatments and appointments were in Bristol, around an hour drive.

“During my chemo, I would sometimes have to go up to Bristol four or five times a week, just as the fuel prices had risen to the highest they’ve been, so the amount of fuel that my family were spending out on was a lot. And the cost of parking at the hospital for all day was a lot as well.

“We’ve started taking the bus because of the rising costs of petrol and parking, because I still need to visit hospital and have additional treatment. So now it can take two and half hours just getting to Bristol, and that has an impact on our time and I can only do that when I am not feeling poorly, as I used to need two people in the car with me to travel to hospital because I felt so sick.

“They are the things that are costing lots of money for people like me.”

Families like Tyler’s going through cancer treatment are facing increasing fuel and transport costs to get to hospital. This October we want to raise vital awareness of how the children, young people and families we support are being affected by the cost of living crisis.