'€50 for petrol, €22 for parking': Extra hospital costs 'add insult to injury' for cancer patients

Aside from the sometimes surreal experience of a life-threatening diagnosis like cancer, I genuinely wonder how families with children cope with out-of-pocket expenses. I’m a grown-up, with no kids, and increasingly find myself struggling, writes David Wilkins

The Irish Cancer Society are life-saving beacons of hope for cancer patients who use its vital services, like night nursing, counselling, Daffodil Centres and its support line. File picture

I had assumed actual highway robbery disappeared in the 18th century. Apparently not.

It’s been a long, tough day. I’m not feeling well after a surgical procedure called a rhizotomy, or nerve block, for chronic complex pain. I’m face-to-face with a soulless digital device at the pay station in the hospital car park. It’s demanding a ransom of €22 before it’ll release my car and get me back on the motorway for the two-hour drive home.