'Unacceptable' prescription fees mean cancer patients are cutting back on food to pay for drugs

Macmillan Cancer Support's survey also found patients go without family outings and holidays due to the cost of prescriptions over a long period of time - hundreds of pounds a year.

The side-effects of treatment, including nausea, fatigue, severe mouth ulcers and diarrhoea, can leave cancer patients needing multiple prescriptions.

Cut backs: Cancer patients are struggling with the cost of long-term drugs

They are free for everyone in Wales and will be free in Scotland from 2011 but in England, the cost of a prescription is £7.10 per item.

In May this year ten charities, including Macmillan, wrote an open letter to the Government asking that the system be changed but Health Secretary Alan Johnson has said there are no plans to abolish it.

In the letter, the charities said: The latest research shows that around 800,000 people every year cannot afford their prescriptions.

'It is simply unacceptable in today's health service to force people to select their medication based on what they can afford rather than what their doctor prescribes.'

The newly-released Macmillan survey of 477 cancer patients found 44% had cut back on essential items like food or heating to pay for the cost of their prescriptions.

Almost two-thirds (59%) had also cut back on entertainment and leisure activities, including evenings out, family outings and holidays.

The charity has argued that prescription charges are a tax on illness and should be abolished.

Breast cancer sufferer Amanda Whetstone is too ill to work, so forced to live on £350 a month statutory sick pay. The 45-year-old dreads the supermarket because she only has £10 a week to spend.

Macmillan chief executive Ciaran Devane said: 'It's appalling that cancer patients in England are forced to cut back on basic necessities like food to pay for their urgently-needed medication.

'People must never be forced to choose between food or medication. The Government must act now.

'Patients should be allowed to focus on getting better instead of worrying how they're going to find money for prescriptions.'

Amanda Whetstone, from Chessington in Surrey, was diagnosed with breast cancer last September and split from her partner at the same time.

Reliant on her own income as an office manager and juggling work with chemotherapy, she began to struggle financially but then was advised to stop work during radiotherapy treatment.

The 45-year-old told Macmillan how she dreads going to the supermarket because she can only afford to spent £10 a week.

'I went from bringing home £1,600 a month to having about £350 a month. I have stayed awake at night for hours crying, thinking: 'How can I make this work?',' she said.

'I have a budget of £10 a week for food and I'm constantly looking for two-for-one offers and things like three pizzas for £3. I can't afford the really healthy food, which is how I would like to eat.

'I won't be able to afford heating over winter. I'll have to sit in jumpers and sweatshirts.'

'I have prescriptions for three items and so every time I get them repeated, which is every three weeks, it costs me more than £21.

'When I became ill, I thought about all these people on income support who get exemption from paying for prescriptions and thought that must apply to me.

'But I found out that no, it doesn't apply to me and I have to pay.'

'If I didn't get housing benefit then I would be homeless. It really is about time the Government did something.'