AN EAST LANCASHIRE mum with incurable lung cancer says the cost of living crisis has left her worrying about bills and funeral costs instead of making memories with her family.

Joanna Jonathan, from Haslingden, was diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer, ALK+, in 2019, aged 34.

The cancer is incurable and Joanna says she will be “lucky” to live another two years.

However, instead of filling those years with happy memories and days out Joanna has been left worrying about how she can heat her home and afford petrol for hospital visits, as the cost of living crisis hits her young family.

Lancashire Telegraph: Joanna Jonathan (right) with husband, Daniel, and children Freya, 3, and Dylann, 11 months.Joanna Jonathan (right) with husband, Daniel, and children Freya, 3, and Dylann, 11 months.
She said: “Our gas and electric bills have shot up and we are living on a pre-paid meter right now.

“We’ve got to try and find £57 a week for gas and electric and we just don’t have that kind of income – I don’t know what we are going to do.

“We also have the additional cost of travelling for treatment at Christie Hospital in Manchester, which is a 30 mile trip.

“The cost of petrol is through the roof and it’s on top of the rising costs and other bills.”

After her diagnosis, Joanna had to give up work and her husband Daniel has been made redundant.

Since then he has been taking care of their children, and the family have relied on disability allowance and Universal Credit to get by.

Joanna, 37, said they are already on a tight budget, relying on budget food items and charity shop clothes.

She said: “There are so many additional things we have to think and stress about on top of the fact that I am dying.

“It’s horrendous. I want to relax and enjoy the time I have with my family and I can’t. There’s no end in sight and prices are set to get even higher.”

Joanna said Daniel is considering going back to work which is a “terrifying” thought for her.

She said: “If I get an infection it can take hold very quickly.

"It can seem like a normal day but the next moment I could fall on the floor and be unable to move.

“If that were to happen while he was at work, and I was on my own with the children, it would be really scary.”

Joanna’s friend, Nicola, set up a GoFundMe page last year to help the family make some memories.

While it was initially meant to fund a family holiday or trip away, Joanna says any money raised now has to go towards bills and fixing up their family home.

Joanna said: “Without this fundraiser, we wouldn’t be in a position to be able to get the house finished. It’s been a lifeline for us.

“All work on the house has stopped since the diagnosis so we are currently living in a half-finished house – thinking of my kids, Freya, 3, and Dylann, 11 months, growing up in a half-finished home makes me so sad.

“If there is one thing I can do for my babies it is leave them a really nice home to grow up in.”

Joanna, who believes she is the first person in the UK to give birth while diagnosed with stage four cancer, said the money could be used for other household bills.

She said: “We initially earmarked it for a holiday but with the cost of living the way it is, we might also have to use some of it for bills as we don’t have any other income."

Some proceeds will be going towards her ALK Positive charity, which Joanna set up in February.

She said: “It’s a charity we set up to fund research projects into my type of cancer. There aren’t any other charities in the UK that do that.

“I need research and I need people to find more treatment options.”

Joanna, who was diagnosed just months after giving birth to her first child, said she is “blown away” by the £11,600 which has been raised so far and wants to make the most of the time she has left.

She said: “If I live another two years I will be extremely lucky. 16 per cent of people with my type of cancer reach the five year mark.

“I know in the next couple of years that I am going to get very poorly and my life will be over.

“But I have had three really good years already. It’s not enough, I want 30, I want 60 but I have had a really good quality of life.

“Thank you to anyone who has donated to the GoFundMe.”

You can make a donation to Joanna’s GoFundMe by visiting the website: https://gofund.me/98635560