University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre welcomes Patron back to public duties

This morning Macmillan Cancer Support staff joined patients and colleagues at the University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre to welcome back His Majesty The King, along with Her Majesty The Queen, on his first public engagement since announcing he was undergoing treatment for cancer.

The King, who has been Patron of Macmillan Cancer Support since 1997, was joined by Her Majesty The Queen during a visit to the University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre, in London, for this first engagement. During the visit, Their Majesties met staff and patients at the Macmillan Support and Information service, which provides a range of services including information, emotional support, and welfare benefits advice for patients, carers and families.

The visit continued a long history of His Majesty’s support for people living with cancer. Macmillan has previously thanked The King for speaking so openly about his cancer diagnosis, which has prompted many more people living with cancer to seek support.

The day after The King’s diagnosis was announced, visits to Macmillan’s information and support pages hit a four year high, with almost 50,000 hits in a single day — a 42% increase on the same day last year*. The charity has also reported major increases in the public volunteering their time to support and fundraise for people living with cancer, seeing a 75% increase in volunteer applications in comparison to the same period in 2023, including the most significant uplift in fundraising volunteering since Covid.

Gemma Peters, Chief Executive Officer at Macmillan Cancer Support said:

“We are delighted His Majesty The King, Patron of Macmillan, has returned to public duties following his cancer diagnosis and treatment. In choosing today’s engagement to highlight cancer innovation, treatment and support, Their Majesties continue to help raise awareness and encourage the millions of people who are facing cancer to seek the support they need.

“We hear from people every day who are returning to work after cancer treatment, it’s different for everyone and can be a daunting time. Macmillan can help, whether you need practical advice, support or just a listening ear.”

Macmillan’s support and information service is there for anyone affected by cancer, from diagnosis, throughout treatment and beyond, and including returning to work.

-ENDS-

Macmillan Cancer Support’s Top Tips for Returning to Work after Cancer

These tips from Macmillan Cancer Support are designed to help you prepare for conversations when returning to work after a cancer diagnosis, during and after cancer treatment.

1. Telling your employer

Talking about your diagnosis is the first step to working with your boss to put in place the support you need at work. Under equalities law your employer should try to help and support you. This includes putting in place reasonable adjustments to help you stay in or return to work when you are ready and able to do so.

2. Be informed

Get as much information about your condition and your treatment (including when your appointments might be) as you can by asking the right questions of the right people. This will help you let your employer know what support or reasonable adjustments you might need.

3. Know your rights

If you have or have had cancer, you have some additional rights at work. In England, Scotland and Wales, employees with cancer are protected from discrimination in the workplace by the Equality Act 2010. The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and its extension, the Disability Discrimination Order of 2006, protect workers in Northern Ireland.

4. Be prepared

Check your company’s guidelines and sickness policies before speaking to your employer. Company policies on sickness absence may not have been drawn up with cancer in mind and therefore may need to be interpreted flexibly. This may be considered as a reasonable adjustment. If you are a member of a union, you can also ask them for advice.

5. Get organised

Before you speak with your manager, write down what you want to say to use as a guide. You can hand this to your manager as a record of your conversation. Try and take notes during the conversation. If you are nervous about speaking to your employer, you can take someone with you when you speak to your manager or HR team. They can also take notes if you are not able to. Remember if you are not feeling well, you can rearrange your meeting to another time.

6. Confidentiality

Know that how much you want to disclose about your diagnosis to your wider colleagues is entirely up to you, and your employer has to respect this.

7. Keeping in touch

Agree a communication plan with work that you’re happy with. This can cover who you speak with, how often you communicate (e.g. weekly, fortnightly, monthly) and how (e.g. by phone, email or in person at home or in the office). This is important if you take time off for treatment, but also if you remain at work as it can help to keep your manager updated as your needs may change. When you are ready to return to work, discuss and agree a return-to-work plan.

8. Support for your employer

There is help for your employer to support you in the workplace which you can let them know about. Macmillan at Work offers resources and training for HR and line managers.

9. Remember…

…the best option for you will depend very much on your individual work, health and financial circumstances. Don’t rush into any decisions, take your time and speak to as many people as you can, including your health professionals and employer about your options.

10. Macmillan is here for you

Should you need further information and support regarding work or financial issues. We have a range of resources on work and cancer (including information for carers and the self-employed) at macmillan.org.uk/work.

Whatever people living with cancer need to ask about cancer, work, money or life. The big things and the small stuff. Macmillan is at the end of the phone and online to provide support. Call 0808 808 00 00 or visit macmillan.org.uk and ask anything.

-Notes to Editors-

For further information, please contact:

Macmillan Press Office at media@macmillan.org.uk or call 07801 307068

Notes for Editors:

About Macmillan Cancer Support

At Macmillan, we give people with cancer everything we’ve got. If you’re diagnosed, your worries are our worries. We will do whatever it takes to help you live life as fully as you can. And we don’t stop there. We’re going all out to find ever better ways to help people with cancer, helping to bring forward the day when everyone gets life-transforming support from day one.

As cancer is evolving, so must we. Macmillan will not settle for anything other than the best possible support for people living with cancer. As a charity, we can’t afford to stand still. Now more than ever, we need to take every chance to make a difference.

But we cannot do it alone. We have been working with others for over 100 years and will continue to do so.

So, we’re working to create a vision of Macmillan that is shaped side by side with the people and communities we exist to support. To find out more about how Macmillan is doing this visit Transforming Macmillan together | Macmillan Cancer Support

About the University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre

Macmillan and UCLH have been working together for over 30 years and launched a formal partnership in 2010 around the development of the new Cancer Centre.

• As part of the partnership, Macmillan donated £10 million towards the centre. It remains Macmillan’s single biggest investment to date and partnership with an NHS organisation.
• The University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre is a busy centre providing facilities for the diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of cancer and non-cancer conditions.
• Within it is the Macmillan Support and Information Service for patients, carers and families providing a range of services including information, emotional support, complementary therapies, and welfare benefits advice.
• The Support and Information Service is one of the largest in the country, it provides a range of interventions and is set up to be evidence-led and a place of innovation.
• Outside the £10 million donation, Macmillan has funded up to 75 healthcare professionals’ roles and projects over the last ten years, investing nearly £4.5m.

Recent investments Macmillan have made include:

• Enhanced Supportive Care Clinical Nurse Specialist and Gynae-oncology Support Worker
• Grants to support the Proton Beam Therapy (PBT) service including the ‘Macmillan Living Room’ space for patients in the PBT centre and three roles including a specialist Radiographer (Sarcoma), and two Support Workers to provide advice and support to patients.
• Two specialist radiographer posts for gynaecology and late effects of head & neck cancers.
• An expansion of the welfare benefits service to reach even more people in financial need.

*Source: Macmillan Cancer Support internal data. Refers to Monday 5th February 2024. On this day there were 48,304 unique page views of the information and support pages on the Macmillan website, the highest daily figure since at least March 2020 and 42% higher than the equivalent day in 2023 (Monday 6th February 2023), which saw 34,124 unique pages views.