by Katie Lamborn

Cancer patients in Kent are struggling to pay their heating bills - according to a leading charity.

Sufferers are twice as likely to fall into fuel poverty then other residents in the county.

Macmillan Cancer Support has found that nationwide almost one in five cancer patients cannot afford to keep their homes warm - double the official national UK figures for the general public.

"[Cancer patients] may have lost their hair or lost weight so they are feeling colder and have turned their heating up to try and feel warm," says Jennifer Mitchell, a policy analyst from Macmillan Cancer Support.

"Obviously that means their fuel bills have gone up. Often at a time when people with cancer have found that their income has been reduced because they have had to give up work - so it's a double whammy."

Macmillan is calling on the Government to offer cancer patients the winter fuel payment like they do the elderly.

Aubrey Price, 73, from Rainham, finished his radiotherapy treatment for prostate cancer in January of this year.

Aubrey, who lives with his wife Valerie, said: "When I was having my radiotherapy I had to have the heating on more as I feel the cold so much more.

"Last winter during that heavy frost my heating bill did shoot up and we only have a one-bedroom bungalow. We get £200 a year from the government towards our heating bills but it is still a worry. "

"Struggling with fuel bills is a situation that can very quickly spiral out of control for cancer patients and it is simply not fair," says Stephen Richards, Director for the South East at Macmillian Cancer Support.

"They need help from the Government and they need it now."