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The cessation of her daily allowances and an insufficient retirement pension led Marilyn Ann to have to stop her cancer treatment to resume paid employment.
Marilyn Ann Mannette is 65 years old. She was living a peaceful retirement in New Brunswick, a region of Canada, when she learned, in the spring of 2021, that her colon cancer had recurred. So she immediately started a course of care. But her already precarious financial situation worsened when she was recently informed that her sickness benefits were coming to an end. The retiree therefore decided, in spite of herself, to interrupt her treatment to take up a job as a cook in a retirement home.
“I receive a little less than €790 per month in pension and my rent is €834, she explained to Radio Canada. Every month, I have to sell something to make up the difference. So I went to the obvious: I had to go back to work. And in order to be able to do that, there has to be no more chemo in my body, because it forces me to go to the bathroom ten times a day.” Which is obviously incompatible with a salaried activity.
“Of course I want to live. I have two beautiful children and five beautiful grandchildren!”
His new employer has decided to limit his attendance time to five hours instead of the usual ten. If Marilyn Ann is grateful to him, she can’t help but feel guilty vis-à-vis her colleagues. “They are all already well overloaded,” she explains. She’s like that, Marilyn Ann… Courageous, but also up against the wall. Because in Canada, a person on sick leave due to illness, injury or quarantine can currently be granted up to fifteen weeks of employment insurance benefits, but no more. .
A time that Marilyn Ann saw coming to an end when her doctors were considering another eighteen weeks of chemotherapy… It was not with lightheartedness that their patient made the decision not to continue her treatment. “Of course I want to live. I have two wonderful children and five wonderful grandchildren!” she exclaims.
A law to increase the compensation period could be passed
A thirst for life that pushed her to write to several political figures in the region in the hope that they would help her. To no avail so far. But things could change since a federal law is being examined in Parliament in Ottawa, aiming to increase the maximum period of compensation for illness from fifteen to twenty-six weeks. The opposition, for its part, wants to take advantage of the media coverage of Marilyn Ann’s case to extend this period to fifty-two weeks.
Remember that in France, health insurance allows, in the event of serious illness (known as long-term illness, or ALD), to receive up to three years of benefits. For Marilyn Ann, the race against time is on. She does not know if and when the government of New Brunswick will respond to her request for help… And finds herself faced with a truly catastrophic situation. When she made her decision to stop chemo, she was expected at the Moncton Hospital: she could not go there because she only had one euro left in her bank account. Not enough to pay for gasoline…
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