Hospital trips can take up half a day

The 15-mile journey from her village of Saxton, near Tadcaster, means she needs access to a car and a simple appointment can often take up half a day.

If she requires treatment, her husband Laurence, 56, or friends have to take her as she is often too ill to drive home, while visiting her in hospital can also take a long time.

"I have a good network of friends and they have been really marvellous but everyone has their own lives as well," she said.

"Many have children and act as taxi drivers after school and in the evenings and don't have the time so it can feel quite isolating in hospital."

Last year she spent three weeks in hospital and noted the differences with two other patients in her bay. One woman from York had a stream of visitors, while another lived much further away and her sick and elderly husband was only able to visit every two or three days. "I just felt that was very sad," said Mrs Waterhouse, 57.

It was often the smallest things which caused the most difficulty – for instance popping to the nearest shop for a pint of milk was a three-mile drive.

"I live with the condition – there's really no getting away from it. There are times when I live a normal life and I go about my days normally and others when life just stops and is governed by hospital appointments and feeling dreadful from the treatment and of course it relapses when you least want it to."

She welcomed Prime Minister Gordon Brown's proposals for one-to-one care in the home from specialist nurses for cancer patients.