Patient A is a young man in his early 20’s - a failed asylum seeker from the Sudan.  He was diagnosed with spinal TB in December 2005.  He was fully compliant with his treatment however his nurse identified that he was not well nourished and, through no fault of his own, his TB recurred and he re-started treatment in February this year.
He had no income (failed asylum seekers get no benefits even while they are appealing their case) and was relying on friends for his accommodation and food - living with different friends – often on the floor.  His TB nurse was worried that he was not able to get enough to eat and was concerned that his recovery would be impaired again because of lack of nutrition.  He had medical advice not to work until his spinal TB was cured so he could not earn any money.  He was given a grant of £100 (in monthly instalments) to spend on food.  He is now half-way through his treatment and noticeably better and putting on weight.  His nurse is confident that the grant is helping his recovery.

Patients B and C are two children from the same family who both had TB. Patient B is 6 years old and Patient C is 13.  They both live with their mum, who is a single parent, and their baby sister. The girls’ mum was struggling – she could not work, due to caring for her three daughters and she was finding it difficult to stretch her benefits to cover the extra transport costs of regular visits to the clinic. Just £6 a week made a big difference as it enabled the Mum and girls to travel to the clinic regularly and ensured they did not have to go without food or turn down the heating in the cold weather.

Patient D is 32 and comes from Zimbabwe.  She is here on a visa which does not entitle her to any welfare benefits.  She does agency care work but by the time she was diagnosed she was unable to work as she was too weak. She had been ill for a while as it took some time for doctors to reach a correct diagnosis.  After many investigations she was finally diagnosed with TB of the cervix.
A week after her diagnosis, Patient D ’s TB nurse  visited her at home to see how she was getting on with the treatment.  She was extremely upset and confided in her nurse that she had not yet collected her medicines because she did not have the money to pay for her prescriptions.  The grant she received paid for a prescription pre-payment certificate (£35.85 for four months) and some money towards food for the first two months.  After this she was able to go back to the agency to work part time and was in no further need of support.

Patient E is 59 years old and is currently living in a hostel for rough sleepers in Halifax.  He is British and lived in Spaom for over 20 years, working all the time as a Lorry/HGV driver in Gibraltar.  He returned to the UK just over 2 years ago.   Although he paid his stamp duty while he was working abroad, now that he is back in the UK he is having difficulty accessing any benefits – he has been told he doesn’t qualify for income support and cannot retire on medical grounds. He has pulmonary TB, is unable to work and is struggling to pay for his prescriptions.  The nurses are working with him to try and access some form of income support and his partner (who is of retirement age) is trying to find a part-time job to bring in some money. However, at the moment they have no money coming in at all and have relied on free meals at the hostel and donations from friends. 
The nurse has requested a grant to pay for a prescription pre-payment certificate for a year - £98.70 plus £100 for food and transport until they can help him access benefits.

Patient F is from Democratic Republic of Congo. This young man, who had been refused asylum status, was diagnosed with TB earlier this year. He came to this country alone, not knowing the whereabouts of his parents and with no support network. He was reliant on the TB team and Social Services for all his needs, who had secured emergency accommodation for the duration of his treatment. He was a DOT(Directly Observed Therapy) patient but he had no possessions of his own for cooking, eating or washing and only had the clothes that he was wearing, which were not suitable for winter. The £50 grant enabled the TB nurses and Patient F to purchase winter clothing as well as basic cooking and utensils, allowing him to stay warm and keep his nutritional status up.

Patient G began to have back pain three days after the birth of her son.  Over a short period of time her symptoms progressed dramatically and Patient G was admitted into hospital where she was diagnosed with spinal TB.  At this time Patient G, who is a single parent, arranged for her son to be cared for temporarily by a friend as she believed that she would be in hospital for only a short time.  Patient G spent a year in hospital undergoing both medical treatment and therapy.  On discharge from hospital she was provided with temporary accommodation, however it was identified that in the best interest of the mother and her baby, the baby would continue to live with Patient G ’s friend until she was physically stronger and able to manage.
Due to the length of time her baby had been away from her, it was felt that a graded approach to his returning to living with his Mum was required.  However, they all live in a different Borough and neither Patient G or her friend had sufficient funds to be able to make the regular journeys backwards and forwards. 
TB Alert was able to make a grant of £200 to enable the carer to bring the baby to his mother for day visits, which progressed to overnight visits. The visits are getting longer and it is expected that the child will be able to live with its mother permanently very soon. 

Nurse H was granted £26.99 to fund a map of London postcode areas for the office as over 100 patients in the previous year had lived outside their primary care trust area. The map assisted the team in tracking cases.

Patient I had been in the UK for eighteen months and was undergoing a long course of TB treatment. The patient had encountered many problems on arrival to the UK: economic, social, physical and pyschological. When the patient was first seen by the TB nurse, she was in considerable distress and suffering. Nevertheless, the patient faced all her problems head-on and, with some support, she coped very well with everyday living and has attended the local college to improve her language skills. Patient E was granted £90 to go on a counselling course to enable her to help others, particularly TB patients, who were experiencing similar problems.