When Georgie was little and suffering from his first cancer, he was treated at Great Ormond Street. GOSH are a fabulous hospital and a lot of my childhood memories were created there. For example, they got Despina, Nikki and I to help them organise a surprise birthday party for Georgie one year in their playroom.
However GOSH is in a bit of a tricky location and parking is a problem. In fact, my uncle was given a parking ticket once. He explained to the warden that he was taking his baby son to hospital for cancer treatment but he received no understanding or sympathy. It wasn’t until he went to court and explained that he was a widower looking after a cancer stricken son that the fine was wavered.
So it wasn’t a surprise for me to hear that Macmillan Cancer Support have discovered that around 60% of cancer patients are paying full price for parking when they travel to hospital for treatment. Hospital parking is really expensive and the last thing you want to worry about when receiving cancer treatment or supporting a loved one through cancer treatment is clock watching and worrying about your parking ticket running out.
I support Macmillan’s campaign to make hospital parking free to cancer patients. In fact I think it should be free full stop. Their campaign has been successful across the UK so far, Wales has had free hospital parking since April 2008. Northern Ireland offers free parking to all chemo and radiotherapy patients. Scottish hospitals also offer free parking.
Macmillan is now calling on hospitals in England to join the other nations of the UK and provide free parking facilities for cancer patients. Sign the pledge and join Macmillan in their quest, it really will make a difference to people already going through huge turmoil.
xxx
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