Skip to main content

Living with cancer

It’s very likely that cancer has affected you or someone you know.

One in two people in the UK alone will develop some type of cancer in their lifetime. While doctors and scientists work on effective treatments, we’re supporting our community by relieving the pressures that often come with a cancer diagnosis.

Mental health and wellbeing

A cancer diagnosis is often a shock to the system, making it difficult to cope with everyday life. Taking good care of your mental health will make a big difference to you and those closest to you.

  • Anxiety is a common response to life-changing news. We work in partnership with experts at Anxiety UK to offer the level of support that’s right for you.
  • Sometimes an outside perspective can really make a difference. That's why we offer funding for counselling and therapy, to help you talk things through.

Financial impact

The average extra cost for a person with cancer is £570 per month, according to Macmillan. This could go towards hospital travel, home adaptations or dental care among others.

  • Our financial support could give you breathing room while you make a plan for the future. We could help with bills, cover travel costs or fund private healthcare if the NHS delays are too long.
  • Legal advice may not be at the top of your list when living with cancer. But our legal team could help with work-related issues, family matters and financial law.

Support for those around you

A cancer diagnosis is devastating for the patient. But it can also affect the people around them – family, close friends and carers. Our support extends to those closest to our community members too. 

  • If you’re a carer for someone with a cancer diagnosis, we may be able to fund a break and pay for someone to take over while you’re gone.
  • Our care and disability funding could pay for home adaptations or special equipment like wigs or prosthetics to increase the quality of life.
Alan overcoming illness
The financial support has alleviated so many problems for us. I can’t express how much it helped - it’s enabled us to live a life. Alan Monelle View story Read quote by Alan Monelle
A photo of Gareth Price, Foothold Trustee and Honorary Treasurer. He is smiling looking at the camera.

A statement from our Honorary Treasurer Gareth Price on our financial situation

Our Trustee Gareth Price explains how the IET's decision to stop collecting donations for Foothold may affect our support for engineers.

A family consisting or a man, woman and boy sitting at a table. Representing an IET member renewing his IET membership, the man is working on a laptop, whilst the woman and boy are doing a crafting activity together.

IET no longer collecting donations for Foothold with membership renewals

Learn about important changes between Foothold and the IET, and find out how you can #DonateDirect to help us support engineers in need.

Opening up new opportunities for the engineering community with the launch of our Engineering Neurodiverse Futures programme

Our new support programme is designed to empower neurodiverse engineering professionals, students and apprentices to achieve their full potential.