A seriously ill couple who have battled heart attacks and cancer moved 300 miles away from London to Newcastle to cope with the cost of living crisis.
Nick Wild, and his partner, Phil Burden, 61, have worked a combined 80-years in the care industry, but now find themselves unable to work and in need of financial support. Circumstances have become so dire for the pair they have been forced to relocate to the other end of the country, where rent is much cheaper.
And now they are raising money for furniture and to help care for their sick dog as they struggle with the rising cost of living.
Read more: Wallsend dog owner's desperate plea to save puppy's life after a devastating diagnosis
The couple, who are on benefits, were paying £819 per month for a one-bedroom council flat in Islington, London, while in Newcastle their rent is £350, and the property - which is located near Byker - has an additional bedroom.
Nick said: "£800 when you're on minimum wage or benefits is not affordable."
The 53-year-old, who has been unable to work since suffering a massive heart attack, said: "I don't want to be on benefits, I want to play my part in society".
Social worker Nick, who helps adults with learning disabilities, said: "Then I was on a phased return to work when I had what I thought was really bad indigestion. Except it wasn't, it was a heart attack."
In March 2022, doctors performed an angiogram on Nick and fitted a stent - a short, wire-mesh tube that acts like a scaffold to help keep the artery open. To his horror they informed him he had suffered multiple heart attacks prior to this one. Nick, who is on 16 different medications to help with his health conditions, has been given a 45% chance of surviving five-years and a 30% chance of living 10-years.
Professionals have told Nick he cannot return to work and while he waits for his medical pension to begin, his partner is in a similar position. He told how his partner Phil cannot work as his health was damaged following radiotherapy treatment for cancer.
Nick does receive Universal Credit, which combined with his half salary, equates to around £1,200 per month. Nick said: "When I go shopping, I tend to buy food items with the yellow stickers, but that makes it really difficult to plan a menu and if you can plan a menu, you can keep the prices down."
At Nick and Phil's lowest point, they were unable to leave their first-floor flat due to their health conditions. Nick added: "It got to the point where the only food we had was a loaf of bread with a bit of green on it.
"It wasn't just because of our finances, we just couldn't physically get out of the house. There was no hope in hell, no neighbours that we knew, there was just nobody to help us."
One way the couple have gotten around their financial hardships in the past is through batch cooking, in which they prepared around 40 meal portions before freezing it. We'd get it down to 50 pence a portion".
The couple were paying £70 per month for electricity - though this increased to £154 just as they were getting ready to move - a significant price hike. In addition to coping with rising bills and debt, Nick and Phil's 10-year-old Labradoodle, Boris, has an ongoing ear infection, which has wiped out what little savings they had. Boris' treatment has cost them around £2,500 in total, and while they have been able to get most of it back through their insurance, the vets required them to pay upfront.
Nick said: "I've had a couple of people tell me that 'if you can't afford to live, then you shouldn't have a dog'. But we've had him for 10 years. So there's no way I'm getting rid of him."
In order to survive on their current income, the couple swapped their home using the Homeswapper website. Nick and Phil moved into their Newcastle flat on Wednesday.
However, their new home needs a face lift and lacks basic furniture such as wardrobes. At a loss about what to do, a friend of theirs suggested starting a GoFundMe campaign to help towards helping Boris the dog and the "million and one things that need sorting, replacing, or repairing".
Nick added: "While things will still be difficult here, they'll be less difficult than it was before".
If you would like to help Nick, Phil and Boris, please visit: https://www.gofundme.com/f/moving-and-setting-up-home-due-to-illness
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