Cancer survivor spends up to €100 per trip for treatment in Cork
Samantha Vaughan: 'The financial costs of treatment are significant.' Picture: Alf Harvey
A cancer patient living in Laois but being treated in Cork has called on the next Government to increase financial supports for patients who find themselves with added costs as they undergo treatment.
Samantha Vaughan, 49, said she is grieving her old life.
“You think it will never knock on your door and here it was knocking on my door. And I was a non-smoker, so when they said it was lung cancer, I said are you kidding?
“It was a real shock," she said.
More than a year on from major surgery to remove her cancer, she said: “I had half a lung removed on my right side — top and middle lobe. So I’ve been learning to breathe again, it was a tough old battle for a good few months.
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“Reality hits now and it can hit very hard. At the end of the day, it’s a chronic illness now because I’m missing a half-lung.”
She explained: “I am grieving the old person, this is the new person now and I have to learn how to be this person.”
Ms Vaughan had struggled to recover from covid in 2022 and sought further testing.
“In one way I feel very lucky that I got covid, and I feel lucky that I was proactive, being an advocate in myself and pushing for it,” she said.
“I felt there was something wrong. And I had stage 2 of an aggressive cancer so God only knows where I would be now if I hadn’t pushed for that X-ray.”
Unable to resume work as a retail manager, the mother of four — two adults and two teens — said she and her husband were “plummeted” into unexpected financial pressure.
Her care is split between Cork University Hospital and the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital.
“I’m fine with the hospital I got. I’m lucky with the doctor and consultant but going up and down there is a bit of a nightmare,” she said.
“You would have had the €50 for diesel, the tolls — which are going up again — and the parking, so it's the guts of €80 to €100 each time.”
She is grateful her care, including targeted therapy, now is state-funded but is very worried about ongoing costs.
Ms Vaughan had been hesitant to apply for a medical card, saying: “At the start, I thought it would be embarrassing to go looking for it.”
But as the costs mounted, she did apply. This took nine weeks to process, including having to re-submit some paperwork three times.
“In the end then I got three medical cards, with three different dates on them. It was ridiculous,” she said.
Ms Vaughan is backing the Irish Cancer Society in its call for the next government to prioritise cancer care.
An Irish Cancer Society spokeswoman said: “Households affected by cancer see an average loss of income of around €1,500 per month, which is around €18,000 over the course of the year.
“At the same time, day-to-day costs remain, like mortgages or rent, and additional expenses emerge for things like transport, medicines, wigs, parking, childcare etc.”
The society is calling for hospital car-parking charges to be abolished, an automatic entitlement to medical cards, and financial support for patients with life-limiting cancer diagnoses.
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