AROUND 70,000 people in Northern Ireland are currently living with cancer, with many facing a hidden financial penalty or rejection for mortgages and insurance.
Even for those free of treatment for years or even decades, they can still be expected to pay an extra 20% more than the general population.
Mark Lawler is Professor of Digital Health at Queen’s University Belfast and is campaigning to change the law across the UK and Ireland to protect cancer survivors.
Over the summer, research he led on the issue was published in The Lancet Oncology journal which found up to a quarter of those that have survived cancer treatment can be discriminated against.
“A lot of the time people don’t realise this is happening at all,” he said.
“I was talking to one person in Dublin, he said his sister was 20 years post lung cancer treatment and her travel insurance was through the roof. It’s just not acceptable at all.
“When you survive cancer, which is already a very difficult and traumatic period, you then have to find out you’re still being affected by your diagnosis.”
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In the Republic, where around 250,000 people also have cancer, he said the insurance industry has signed up to a code of conduct on the issue.
“I get the impression that some insurance companies abide by the code and some completely ignore it,” he said.
“Overall there are eight countries that have made changes legally like France, and a further five including the Republic that have a code of conduct.
“We really want it to be a legal requirement, because then people will act on it.”
Among those affected are breast cancer survivors Sarah McGuckin (37) from Downpatrick and Caroline Kearney (45) from Ballynahinch.
Ms McGuckin told the Irish News: “I definitely don’t have the same momentum or energy that I used to. Financially, it’s difficult being out of work for that long period of time.
“Then when you do go back into work, to not have that energy as you did before. That can be a hard pill to swallow, but I’ll take that over the alternative.”
On rising insurance prices, she added: “Hopefully I have a lot of years left of my life, but my insurance prices will take a hit over the years and that’s not going to go away.
“That’s even 20 or 30 years later because I still have that diagnosis.”
Ms Kearney said that having critical illness cover in place during her treatment had helped, but did not eliminate worry for the future.
“You do feel that pressure. Because it’s the ‘what-if I can’t get back to work? This money won’t last forever.’
“Personally I was ok, but I know that many people didn’t have that cover in place and found things financially hard.
“That’s an extra burden on top of everything else that you don’t want.”
Prof Lawler supports a right for patients to officially forget a cancer diagnosis five years after completing treatment.
“Our scientific measure is that after five years you’re cured, we feel that’s reasonable,” he said.
“We’ve had sessions in Europe where the insurance industry are coming in very strong at 10-15 years, I said ‘no way’ to that. It makes it impossible for people.
“One of the things you want to do is forget about having cancer by getting away on a holiday. But if you have travel insurance premiums that are almost impossible to meet or even getting mortgage protection to buy a first house - for someone on an average wage it’s very debilitating.
“This is putting extra financial pressures on people that have already been through so much with their diagnosis and cancer treatment.”
He added: “You’re probably talking about a 20% difference with cancer survivors to get insurance or mortgages when compared to the normal population.
“This isn’t about compassion, it’s actually about evidence. How come if a cancer professional tells you that you’re cured of your disease, but the financial industry is then telling you ‘you’re not.’ What right do they have to do that?”
