The moment we are experiencing means that cancer patients in a situation of economic vulnerability and their families may be forced in the midst of a health crisis to decide between, for example, paying bills or buying pharmaceutical products to alleviate the side effects of cancer treatments. Something that places these people and their families at risk of economic vulnerability in one of the most difficult moments of their lives.
The Emergency Aid Program for patients at risk of social exclusion seeks that neither these patients nor their families have to choose between buying medicines or paying for electricity. The specific objectives are:
- Offer emergency financial aid (living expenses and supplies, pharmaceutical expenses, food, transfers to receive treatments, etc.).
- Offer loans of prosthetics and orthotics (wheelchairs, articulated beds, etc.).
- Supply wigs and prosthetics.
The economic crisis has accentuated the situation of vulnerability in which some patients and relatives find themselves unable to cover basic family needs as a result of the disease. The psychological impact that the disease usually entails is seriously aggravated by the presence of social and economic problems derived or worsened by it, affecting not only the patient, but also the entire family unit. The situation for many of these people affected by cancer is made more complicated during this period of health crisis by COVID-19. For this reason, at EROSKI we want to collaborate with the AECC Emergency Aid Program for patients at risk of social exclusion, which during the COVID-19 crisis has already provided free assistance to more than 50,000 people through its professionals and more than 40,000 calls through its Infocancer telephone service, also opening a fund of 3 million Euros for emergency social aid. In Menorca, the aid provided through the Céntimos Solidarios Program will be channeled to some 40 patients in the province.
The project will be developed in the territory of Menorca and will help some 40 patients in a situation of economic vulnerability to:
- Cover their basic necessities derived from household and food bills.
- Access to necessary products to alleviate the side effects of cancer treatment.
- Face transfers to reference hospitals where they can receive cancer treatments.
- Get technical aids aimed at improving your quality of life.
This EROSKI campaign will contribute to serving part of the patients and relatives in vulnerable situations residing in Menorca. Specifically, it will help around 40 people from the areas near the stores participating in the campaign. These are patients who face some of these difficulties:
- Reduction of income due to changes in the workplace: problems of job adjustment due to loss of employment or reductions in forced working hours, inability to carry out work that implies overexertion, temporary or permanent disabilities, or even the absence of income in the case of self-employed patients with Social Security debts and those with incomes below IMW.
- Assumption of new expenses derived from the disease: prosthetics, transfers to treatment, products to alleviate side effects of cancer treatment, etc.
- Physical problems: possible loss of basic capacities of patients, temporarily or permanently, affecting their quality of life, as well as their family structure.