LIFE doesn’t stop when you have cancer.

Your dog still needs walking. Your clothes still need washing. But if you are suffering cancer, these things might be beyond you.

During the initial crisis phase, friends and family may be able to rally around.

But: “Your family gets weary after a while,”

says 61-year-old Susan Gillam from Eastleigh, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in January 2004.

“They have got their own lives and work and children to deal with.

Now all employers want 110 percent out of everyone.”

Susan wasn’t given a very good prognosis and most years something has happened to knock her off her feet, whether it’s the cancer itself or treatments such as chemotherapy.

It was when she was ill last January that she was referred to Eastleigh’s Macmillan Solutions service.

The project has a bank of volunteers who can go into people’s homes to help them out with all sorts of tasks that aren’t dealt with by statutory services.

Sharon Parkes, who runs the service, said: “We have a young woman who gets quite tired in the afternoons so a volunteer goes and collects her children from school. It saves her husband from having to leave work early every day so the money is still coming in. It’s a small thing that can have huge consequences for a family.”

Susan adds: “This really helps with your quality of life, which is your day to day living.

“The loss of control can be really depressing.

I’m very independent and Macmillan Solutions felt as though it was tailor made to my needs.”

* For more information call Sharon Parkes on 023 8090 2435 or email sparkes@ 1community.org.uk