For Lotte Ryan, a friend and fellow campaigner

Kitty Jones Blog

The following is from my friend, Charlotte Ryan, who was expected to attend work interviews or lose her benefits just weeks before she died. This was written on December 12, 2014:

I have terminal cancer, my prognosis is 0-3 years and I was diagnosed in March 2014 with my brain stem glioma. In April 2014 I was placed in the support group* for 3 years and I have gone from being able-bodied to hopelessly disabled. I have many neurological deficits including diploplia, dyspraxia, dysarthria and dysphagia. To save you googling, this means that I have double vision and am going blind, I’m very clumsy and most days I drop everything I pick up, my speech is failing and one day I won’t be able to communicate verbally at all and I have such difficulty swallowing that I now have a feeding tube.

I cannot leave the house alone and I’m at risk of choking and need 24 hour care. They speak of me going into residential care, but they hope to keep me in my own home for as long as possible. The trouble is degenerative, nothing will get better, only worse, the cancer can’t be cured. I’m 37.

Now. I can deal with all that. I’m alive! And I can still do stuff!! What I cannot deal with is that I am on the work programme! I received this letter today (too late to ring the WP) demanding I attend an appointment with the Work Programme on Tuesday or they’ll stop my benefits. HOW SICK DOES A PERSON HAVE TO BE BEFORE THE HARASSMENT STOPS?”

To read the entire blog eentry, please click on the link provided below:

Kitty Jones Blog

Note: This is a not an uncommon example of the inhumane treatment of people at the alter of neoliberlism that has taken over and corrupted all the governments in the EU. In Sweden people with cancer and heart conditions are forced out to work. This quest to transfer our tax and pension funds into the hands of private companies that are making record profits has resulted in a collapse of all common sense and all that was good in our communities. My best wishes to those near and dear to Lotte. For those that are left behind are the ones who suffer the most.