A Sunderland woman has spoken about how her mum's cancer led to debilitating back pain - but thanks to support from Macmillan she's been able to help her get a vital pain-relieving operation.
Baljit Basi, 52, is from Ryhope. A retired postmaster, she cares for her mother who is in her 80s and was diagnosed with endometrial womb cancer in 2019. Her mum had a hysterectomy, but her cancer spread.
Baljit is part of the city's Indian Sikh community and has been able to access support from an unique scheme running at the Sunderland Bangladesh International Centre. This sees Macmillan funding help to support those from diverse communities going through a cancer journey and the idea is to tackle some of the communication barriers that can impact on health outcomes.
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Baljit's father lives with dementia, and she said it had been vital to help tackle her mum's symptoms. She continued: "My mother is a very strong woman, but she has been experiencing debilitating pain in her back we now know is linked to secondary cancer spreading causing her a huge amount of pain and preventing her from even sitting up in bed.
"As a family we are strong but with both my parents living with long term health conditions any support navigating the healthcare system has been gratefully received. Nahida and the other centre staff have been incredibly supportive providing me with a source of information around what we as a family are entitled to from the social care and healthcare systems and giving me confidence."
Nahida Aktar leads Macmillan's BAME project at the centre. She and her team are focussed on helping people from across the city's communities to navigate the health system when cancer hits them or their families.
Baljit added: "My Macmillan nurse has also been instrumental in enabling me to get additional information about my mother to the cancer team caring for her, so that the right decisions can be reached.
"My mother has now had a pain-relieving operation on her back that was initially not going to happen for fear of it being too much for someone of her age. But as a family we believed that relieving the pain in her back would massively increase her morale and hopefully enable further cancer treatment to take place. Something that was supported by our Macmillan nurse who fed this information and our wishes back to the clinical team."
Another woman to see the benefits of the programme at the SBIC centre is Sadiyya Begum - who works as a support worker there herself. Sadiyya, 33, saw her grandma diagnosed with oesophageal cancer. But this was only after "several years" of symptoms.
"My grandma is a strong lady," Sadiyya said. "But even after diagnosis I still had to convince the doctors that she would be physically strong enough to undertake a course of radiotherapy, something that would have been difficult to convey if I wasn’t able to speak good English.
"I think language and cultural barriers are a reality for many people from ethnic minority backgrounds and it was fortunate that I was on hand to support. My family’s experience is not unusual, and I think to have something more formal like the Macmillan Cancer project here in Sunderland is essential."
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