A CHARITY has said some Islanders with cancer are relying on them to meet spiralling energy bills and called for action to help them.
Macmillan Cancer Support said it had given out £5,150 in grants to 29 cancer patients on the Island to help them pay energy bills.
The charity said it was giving out almost twice as much in grants for help with fuel bills across the UK as it was five years ago. It called for the Independent Fuel Poverty review to prioritise cancer patients for more support to avoid fuel poverty.
Regional cancer information and support specialist Sarah Beaven said: "To feel scared to put the heating on because of soaring energy bills is an unacceptable reality for thousands of vulnerable cancer patients, who feel the cold more and spend long periods of time at home.
"When the charity was established, founder Douglas Macmillan helped cancer patients by handing out sacks of coal to keep them warm.
"It is shocking that a century on people who are diagnosed with this devastating disease are still relying on a charity to heat their freezing homes," she said.
According to a statement issued last week, in 2011 the charity paid out £2,548,563 to 12,669 cancer patients in the UK, compared with £1,398,678 to 7,369 patients in 2006.
The results of the Hills Fuel Poverty Review are due to be published in the early part of this year.
An interim draft of that report acknowledged evidence provided by Macmillan that people with cancer could be more vulnerable to feeling the cold and health care professionals believed it could affect their recovery.
Reporter: ross.findon@iwcp.co.uk