A FATHER who spent hundreds of pounds on petrol taking his young son to hospital for vital cancer treatment says the Government needs to do more to help other families struggling financially, writes Jim Tatum.

Chris Gabb, from Bracknell, is backing a campaign by charity CLIC Sargent which is trying to help families deal with the extra travel costs that come with so many hospital visits.

This comes following new research findings, which showed that children with cancer are having to travel twice as far and spend twice as much on getting to and from hospital than adults.

Korbin, Chris’s son, was four when he was diagnosed with Lymphoma and needed treatment at the Royal Marsden hospital in London for eight months.

The hospital is roughly 50 miles from the Gabbs’ home in Bracknell and was a three hour round journey.

Mr Gabb said: “I made the journey every day after work, and I had to finish work early which had a huge impact on us as a family financially.

“We had support from CLIC Sargent when we were first diagnosed, we were given a donation to pay for one car to be parked in the car park which helped massively.

“But the cost of the constant travelling to and from hospital meant that we had to take out a loan from my company to be able to afford it.”

Mr Gabb believes more needs to be done to help families with travel costs and backs a campaign from charity CLIC Sargant, which is urging the government to do more.

The CEO at CLIC Sargant, Kate Lee, said: “We know that cancer costs and families are really struggling financially.

“This is not good enough and the government needs to set up a Young Cancer Patient Travel Fund so that families can focus on their child, rather than worrying about mounting bills.”

For more information on the campaign, visit http://bit.ly/2zs3WlX