Macmillan Cancer Support Reviews 

My husband was diagnosed with cancer in July 2024 and sadly passed away in March 2025. From the outset, we were assigned a Macmillan nurse. Honestly, I am not sure why. Being told you have cancer is overwhelming enough, but to have a Macmillan nurse attend the appointments even before you’ve even had a proper consultation with the specialist felt incredibly intrusive. It reinforced the feeling that my husband was a “dead man walking” before we had even begun to understand his diagnosis.
In our experience, most of the Macmillan nurses were ineffective and disinterested, especially once it became clear that the treatment wasn’t working. When we needed compassion and support the most, they weren’t at all helpful. Instead they pass you to the palliative care team, of course I understand this is part of the process, but the way it is handled feels incredibly insensitive. You are left with a total feeling of despair, at the very time when you would expect them to step up and actually be supportive.
If I am ever diagnosed with cancer myself, I absolutely do not want Macmillan anywhere near me.

I submitted a complaint direct to Macmillan months ago but didn't receive a reply, hence a review. Our experience with most of the nurses was good, but one nurse refused to administer pain meds hours before passing. These are meds I had been able to administer regularly myself my mouth, but due to swallowing issues at this stage could not. She said his face was not distorted in pain, so she refused to give pain relief. Shocking. She then managed to somehow allow other meds she was administering to leak out of the syringe. She said she couldn't give another dose as she didn't know how much she had spilled. So no pain meds or other meds that were prescribed were given on this visit. Also disappointing that Macmillan did not respond to advise whether this had been investigated, so it does not happen to another family.

Absolutely shocking service. Total waste of space these people

Twice I've spoken to macmillan cancer and both times I received excellent advice and service phone was answered quickly couldn't be more helpful u were great

Thought our experience might be unique. Sad to see so many others have received little if any empathetic support from this service. I fail to understand why such a service is offered at all if those involved lack basic communication skills. Being told you have cancer is an extremely traumatic experience followed by waiting for results and treatment/therapy. Empathy and communication appear to be completely lacking and this service needs a complete overhaul as something is really wrong with things as they are. I would never donate until they provide the service they advertise as providing. Shame on those who have allowed this to happen.

Second family member in 15 years needing cancer support. Yet again, no answer, then they said they couldn’t really help. Same old story… z

My father was in hospital having been diagnosed with CUP, terminal as it turns out. I phoned the Macmillan support line one day in May this year, I don't remember the exact date unfortunately. I wanted some advice about my father's pain control. The man I spoke to on the support line was completely lacking in any compassion, gave monosyllabic answers to my questions, had no helpful advice to offer at all, not even a kind word of sympathy to help me. I was horrified and felt even worse after contacting this supposed support line. Truly, it was shocking and awful, right when I and my family were at our very lowest. I still think about that person's awful attitude and voice. I vowed never to contact Macmillan ever again and I haven't, even though we have frequently wanted advice since then. What really upsets me is having to see the constant TV adverts where they give the impression that they will actually be kind to you when you are really suffering and help you in some way, even if it is just offering sympathy. They didn't. Quite the opposite.

I won't be donating anything to this organisation ever.

Our family (naively) presumed Macmillan would be as supportive as the adverts show and provide palliative care by nurses and we couldn't have been more wrong, disappointed, or heartbroken by a charity we trusted.
My mother was provided a bed and commode by the occupational therapist (who is lovely) but that is all, no nursing, no care, nothing else, they say it's all somebody else's job.
Whilst the phone number is good for emotional support for you, however it is useless for a dying,delirious patient and there won't be a nurse by their bed at all.
The adverts of a Macmillan nurse caring for a dying family member is a cruel and misleading notion which has left our family not only disappointed but incredulous that a charity we've believed in and supported for years will only provide limited help and care.
My advise to anybody caring for a family member in this position would be to contact your local community nurses as they're the ones who actually do the care.

Husband under royal oldham hospital for CUP, even though we were told it was liver cancer spread to bones etc then admitted for biopsy of liver to try n find the primary cancer. He was shoved in a terrible ward with no care. Once biopsy done, shuffled off home to await the results. Results arrive as per initial consultation and macmillan promised ie palliative team..no one turned up then when I ring I get ITS BANK HOLIDAY see you Tuesday!! So he's sent home to die and no one cares basically. Hospital wants the bed, they too don't work bank hols as the last one co incided with biopsy. I was up and down to macmillen office in the hospital and the lady in there was nice and sympathetic but even so they didn't help as such. Seems to me mcmillen isn't what I thought. No more donations from me! Shove charity where we've been shoved@@

MacMillan Cancer commercials featuring a pink-haired woman dressed like a clown is an insulting and vile way to treat patients who are dying of cancer. MacMillan Cancer should have its charity status revoked for its complete disregard for the suffering of cancer patients.

Have approached macmillan for help and got generic responses that basically passed me off. Tried again and again got nowhere. Shocked as my family have spent much of thier lives fundraising for this charity.
What shocked me the most was the questionarie that followed with incredibly intrusive money driven questions that I would not expect from the worst company on earth.
I am heartbroken at the way macmillan is now run.
Please do not put a generic response below.

My sister has terminal cancer and her macmillan nurses were utterly useless , negligent and uncaring . Never followed up on phone calls and couldn’t even be bothered to attend her last oncology appointment despite reassuring they would . Utter cowards . ( this is in Brighton ,East Sussex)

Dreadful service. They have lost their mission of compassion and hands on service. Only interested in Park Runs, Marathons, Fund Raising and filling up their Physiotherapy Classes. They are NFI with anything else. When I have had contact with them, they are clumsy and usually upset you or make things worse. Recently a 20 year old MacMillan physical fitness fanatic offered my husband physiotherapy. He is 77, can't stand for very long and has stage 4 cancer. When we declined she threw a little hissy fit on the Chemo ward. You couldn't make it up. This shower are terrible. I don't even know what to say.

I thought the Macmillan nurses were supposed to be kind and helpful? That was NOT my experience when I called the helpline and spoke to 'Alison'. She had a really bad attitude and was very 'chippy' every time I asked a question. I have a 31 year old friend who has terminal cancer and I naively thought I’d at least get a kind and knowledgeable person. It seems as if Macmillan are more interested in fund raising than actually helping people! (Look up what the CEO gets paid) I am NEVER donating to them again. ***UPDATE*** Sadly the friend mentioned in the post above died. We had spoken about having Macmillan nurses and I'm now glad we didn't. We found better and more caring nurses to look after him.

Don’t expect to talk to your “designated” nurse specialist about anything urgent - they may (or may not) phone you you back “within two days” Do NOT expect anyone to be available on bank holidays or weekends. Do NOT expect any empathy. In my humble experience I have found this service utterly pointless. I suggest you go to A&E or to try and contact the doctor / ward / team. Good luck.

They told me to call Marie Curie when my mother was ill. I’m really not sure what they do.

Don't know how helpful these guys are, but they score 5/5 for trying to raise funds. These days you visit many sites to get info you find they want your money. Was is a site for?

I have found MacmIllans support online absolutely invaluable - faced with the sudden shock of an advanced cancer diagnosis I was keen to learn all I could ahead of discussing treatment pathway pros and cons and to find out all I could do to best manage things on a number of fronts at very 'short notice' - the webchat with a cancer nurse facility and the Macmillan BUPA partnership counselling sessions have been beyond welcome - giving me clear sighted wisely signposted support and knowing what questions to ask of my oncology team when awaiting MDT team discussions on my treatment route. Thank you SO much I am indebted to you all for being there at a very scary time - you do wonderful work and it is so appreciated here

My partner had a prostatectomy at Eastbourne Hospital. Mcmillan nurse was helpful till operation went wrong, then she never came near him and ran the other way when she saw me. Later on he had throat cancer and had to feed himself via PEG. The McMillan Centre in Brighton refused to let him sit in there to feed himself and he was led to a room little more than a broom cupboard in case he offended anyone.

This fantastic charity is amazing. A loan for a wig, I have just returned home after a lengthy stay of 10 weeks in their palliative unit itn Sheffield but you gotta stay strong much love ❤️