Christina Malcolm Day lives in Banbury, Oxfordshire with her wife Heidi. She was diagnosed with an endocrine tumour that is located at the base of her skull. Unfortunately, due to the location of the tumour, it cannot be operated on. “Luckily, I could get the PRRT, (peptide receptor radionuclide therapy) which was a godsend. It's like a radiation therapy. It's kept everything stable for now, but I have yearly scans.”

These types of tumours are incredibly rare, so Christina had genetic testing done along with her mum and sister. “They identified that I had a gene mutation, which does predispose me to develop more. My dad has passed. So, now we think a lot of his problems were probably related to the tumours. My sister was positive, and she did develop tumours as well, not in her neck but in her bladder, which she had operated on.”

Then it was just automatically refused. I had to obviously do the reconsideration again and then I had to go to another tribunal. That was I think during COVID, so it was a Zoom meeting and everything just goes down to very physical things like, you don't appear this way.”

Financial worry is constant for the couple and the frustration is difficult to deal with. They both have been diagnosed with ADHD and are coming to terms with what this means for their lives, on top of already dealing with so much together.

The strain on their lives from financial pressures is out of their control, with daily battles to ride out this crisis. For example, despite trying to whittle down one bill, they received a debt collector’s letter relating to it. “The only help that we've had is from family members and friends. That's it. We're lucky that we've got a friend who comes and brings us shopping and just goes and gets bits for us. We didn't ask him but he knows we are struggling and he wants to help. We've asked to borrow money from family members to pay bills.”

Not knowing where to turn to for help and advice confounds them. There are no specific charities to support them. They are seeing increases across the board from mortgage payments, and gas bills to the ever-increasing costs of food. They also must find the funds somewhere in their already tight budget for the cannabidiol (CBD) oil Christina uses to manage pain, “I try and go for either reflexology or private physio to help also manage the pain. Then the other payments are really just like for me, like supplements and vitamins and the CBD for pain and inflammation. I've also just tried to get some newer vitamins because I think I'm possibly having some perimenopause symptoms. Again, they're expensive. I need to try and do something. I'm not getting any help from the NHS or anything because I'm too young. I am hoping that they might help a little bit. I want to be okay. I want to be able to just do a bit more if I can.”

Christina would love to be able to go out and work, but finding an employer that could accommodate her illness is difficult. She understands that businesses can’t be as flexible as she needs, not knowing how she will be from one day to the next.