Cancer cost me £70,000 even though I got free NHS treatment: The hidden expenses… and the easy steps to protect your finances: GINA MILLER

While reviewing my energy bills in the winter of 2025, I realized how much cancer was costing me.

The chemotherapy drugs I was taking to fight breast cancer at the time were making me much colder than usual, so I turned on the heater.

But my efforts to stay warm enough to do my job meant that our bills skyrocketed during the most expensive time of the year, and the cost of heating our home was 30 percent higher than the previous winter.

And there was no money coming to me because I wasn’t well enough to work while I was fighting cancer.

We talk constantly about the emotional effects of cancer, but we almost never talk about the financial effects. The truth is that this can have a devastating impact on family finances.

I calculated the cost of my cancer diagnosis and estimated it would be around £50,000 in lost earnings and extra work costs, and £20,000 in increased household bills. This is despite the fact that my first treatment was free on the NHS.

I’m in a lucky position as I have money saved for emergencies, but it was still a shock.

The £70,000 total includes loss of earnings, additional private screening costs, heating bills and takeaways ordered for the family because I couldn’t cook.

At a time when we are at our lowest, a cancer diagnosis triggers a tsunami of financial pressures.

In September 2024, at the age of 58, I was diagnosed with breast cancer when I discovered that I had an extremely aggressive form due to a gene mutation. This meant I had to have additional surgery.

I had chemotherapy, radiotherapy, a double mastectomy, and surgery to remove my ovaries. My body was completely gutted for 18 months to prevent the cancer from coming back.

From the day of diagnosis, the costs began to mount almost immediately and kept coming. There are so many expenses that I never thought would come with having cancer.

The first thing people don’t realize is how long it will take before you can get back to work and do your day job as usual.

It is not uncommon for treatment to last between 20 months and two years. During this period your financial endurance will be tested to the maximum.

When the doctor broke the news, I knew I would be out of work for a few months, but I definitely underestimated how long it would last. In my case, it took 18 months before I could hold a full-time job.

And even now, two years later, it’s a struggle and I really only work four days a week. Being self-employed, I had to employ others when I was literally unable to work, which cost around £50,000.

The people I have met while battling cancer have all seen their earnings take a big hit. Many found themselves on statutory sick pay when they could no longer work.

This is paid at £123.25 per week or 80 per cent of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.

28 weeks later, while cancer treatment is still ongoing, even sick pay is cut and patients become dependent on aid.

Then there are so many extra costs incurred due to your treatment. Since you cannot use any chemicals on your skin, there are a lot of special products that you have to buy and the alternatives are really expensive.

For example, a bottle of body cream can cost £40 (more than eight times the price of a standard bottle).

Doctors also recommend good nutrition, which can be expensive. For example, switching to organic fruit options can cost two or three times more.

All my fingernails and toenails fell out, which meant I had to buy special products and this cost hundreds of pounds.

Also needing dental treatment for cancer, which is not covered by the NHS, added several thousand to my bills.

I’m really surprised that the costs just keep going up. In my opinion, it is much worse for a woman to get breast cancer than for a man to get prostate cancer, because women are often at the center of family life.

The entire family dynamic is falling apart and it takes a lot of money to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible.

My husband of 20 years has picked up as much of the slack as he can, taking care of our children and our home.

At my worst, I would lie in a dark room for days. I couldn’t do anything. After chemo, I would spend two days vomiting on the floor next to the toilet.

When I couldn’t cook or go to the supermarket we were ordering more takeaways and Ocado deliveries to make sure everyone had as good a meal as possible. At the worst point we were spending up to twice as much money on them as normal.

It costs too much to keep a house going while I couldn’t do it.

Cancer treatment has a big impact on family life. At some points I couldn’t see my older children, who were at university, because my immune system was hit and they were mixing with too many people.

Financial distress: A cancer diagnosis costs an average of £570 a month, according to Macmillan Cancer Support

And where I really noticed the bills increasing was in maintenance and consulting costs. My eldest daughter, Lucy-Ann, 38, has a learning disability and needs a carer at home.

He needed therapy to deal with his fears when I couldn’t see him or help him; He thought his mother would die.

During my treatment, I talked to many women for whom the real issue was finances, not health.

At the Rose Centre, a specialist breast cancer center at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, south London, I would sit for hours with other women drinking different chemotherapy “cocktails”. When we talked, the main topic was financial pressure.

A cancer diagnosis costs an average of £570 a month, according to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Because the disease was diagnosed at an early age, many of the women I met were ‘sandwich’ carers, caring for both their children and their aging parents at the same time. It was one of the most expensive periods of their lives.

They had to place their elderly family members in a home and pay extra for the care of their children. Some came close to losing their homes due to the costs, and one woman had to re-mortgage her home to cope with the ever-increasing demands on her finances.

The cost of cancer for women increases the existing fiscal deficit. They earn less than men, receive less pension and often take time off to have children.

They are less likely to invest money and see the associated growth. They are then affected by this and may never recover financially.

It doesn’t have to be this way if we help people prepare financially for something that is statistically likely to happen to most of us. It’s a blind spot, but it’s something we should all be prepared for.

This means saving as much as you can, having a good emergency fund, and prioritizing our financial resilience.

And insurance is very important. We insure ourselves for holidays but don’t tend to insure for emergencies like this. Insurance can be a big help, but even if you have insurance it won’t cover all these costs, so your finances need to be in good shape in other ways as well.

Sitting with other women who received the same treatment as me made me even more aware of the importance of planning. I was so determined to do something that I restarted it. investment platform MoneyShe for women, while I was receiving treatment.

This will help women take control of their finances through private investment and retirement assistance.

The disease doesn’t just affect your body; I want everyone to think about how they would cope financially if cancer happened to them, before it’s too late.

• As told to Rosie Murray-West