A former homeless man from Mansfield who has been diagnosed with incurable lung cancer has written a song thanking Macmillan after the charity provided financial support.

Getting himself back on his feet after losing his home last year, Don Cornwall, who is in his 60s, has now found himself unable to work after being told he had lung cancer.

Don said: “I started coughing about three months ago, so I went to the doctors and they sent me to hospital for a chest scan. They saw a shadow down the right side and I found out it was cancer. It was a shock. I’m not ready to die yet, I’ve still got so much to give.”

Don is currently having chemotherapy treatment so is unable to work, which is putting him under huge financial pressure.

“I’m financially strained because I can’t work and won’t be able to work for a while now,” he said.

The medical team treating him at King’s Mill Hospital put him in touch with Donna Langley (pictured), a Macmillan money and work advisor in Nottinghamshire, who helps people to cope with the financial impact of having cancer.

Donna helped Don to fill in the forms for the government benefits he was entitled to, including disability benefits and universal credit so that he can concentrate on fighting cancer without the added worry of losing his home and putting food on the table.

“I don’t know what I would have done without Donna. She’s also looking to get me a Macmillan grant to help pay for clothes as I’ve lost a lot of weight,” he said.

Throughout the whole ordeal, music has kept Don’s spirits lifted. He started writing songs about his life nine years ago, with his first song scoring 6.1K views on YouTube. Since then he’s written a song about being homeless and now having cancer and the support he’s had from Macmillan.

“Macmillan have been so good to me, I’d love to help in some way. Then I thought, well I write songs, I’ll write one about Macmillan coming to save me,” he said. “When I write a song I feel uplifted, it’s helping me stay positive. When I sing my songs it makes me feel strong.”

Donna, who is one of a team of five who run the Macmillan Money and Work Service in Nottinghamshire, said: “When people get a cancer diagnosis the first thing they think about is am I going to die, and once that question is answered, they ask, can I afford it.

“When people are unable to work, the situation can become very serious very quickly. We often come across people having to make the choice between ‘eat or heat’ – putting food on the table or heating their homes. This is the situation Don was in and I’m so glad we were able to support him.”

Since April it has supported 333 people affected by cancer in Nottinghamshire and helped them to claim £1,611,102.45 in entitled government benefits to help offset the cost of cancer.

Donna continued: “For a lot of people, this is the first time they’ve fallen ill in their lives and the first time they’ve had to negotiate the benefits system, so they don’t know what they’re entitled to. When someone has got a cancer diagnosis and appointments to go to, filling out a form is the last thing they want to do. That’s where we can make life a little bit easier. We de-mystify the process and help things along. We often find that financial worries cause more anxiety than the diagnosis itself, so we try to take some of that pressure off so people can focus on their health.”

To get in touch with the Macmillan Money and Work Service contact 01274 987600 or email [email protected]