How micro-donations help keep a vital support line service running

Every minute of every day someone affected by a life-threatening cancer contacts a charity because they need advice, information or just want a chat. Macmillan Cancer Support, one of the charities to benefit from donations through Pennies, provides a Support Line service for people affected by cancer who need some help – this could be a patient, a carer or a relative of someone with cancer.

The money raised for Macmillan through Pennies has so far helped this vital service run not for minutes or hours, but for more than a day, touching the lives of around 350 individuals because your pennies donations have contributed over £10,000 to date and the support line costs Macmillan £8,843 to run every day replying to around 329 calls and emails.

The Support Line gets a huge range of queries, from questions about claiming benefits to worries about how to talk to children about a terminal diagnosis. One of the people who answers these calls is Cancer Information and Support Manager Zoe. Along with her colleagues, Zoe works to ensure that anyone who calls up gets all the information and help they need from the whole team at Macmillan.

“We don’t just deal with the patient, we deal with everyone affected by cancer,” says Zoe. “So it could be that sisters, mums, dads, children call us, talking about their feelings or wanting more information to support the people affected by cancer.”