Mr. AV is a 56-year-old man and lives alone in his flat in Poplar. He has been diagnosed with liver cancer and is considered palliative since April 2019. He does not speak much English and requires an interpreter to communicate effectively. Mr. AV has been a member with us for over 30 years, we know him very well. He has a 12-year-old daughter who lives with her mother, they too live in Tower Hamlets, his daughter contacts him regularly but his ex-partner does not support him as she has a very hectic work life. In the past, we helped Mr. AV to apply for Job Seeker Allowance, we showed him how to access the internet to search for work and we registered him to an English class at Mile End Centre. At the beginning of March 2019, he told us that he had stomach problems and felt nauseated all the time. We booked an appointment for him to see his GP. After the appointment, the GP referred him to London Hospital where they gave him a scan and biopsy test. The results came back as the final stages of liver cancer. There is hardly any treatment to help prolong his life. The Community Palliative Care Team contacted Mr. AV offering him a place at St Joseph’s Hospice. He refused to go there because he wanted to stay near to the Vietnamese community and has many friends living in Poplar who could come and visit him every day.
In May 2019, Mr. AV’s condition worsen. He could not go to Poplar Job Centre to sign on for his JSA. Our Vietnamese older people worker made the Universal Credit claim and Personal Independence Payment. A few weeks later Mr. AV was entitled to these benefits. At the same time, the Barts Health NHS trust Continuing Care team called our Vietnamese Homecare team to offer a care package to support Mr. AV with the management of his nutritional needs, domestic and laundry tasks. Our Vietnamese care worker came to his flat every day for two and a half hours to take care of all his needs. Although Mr. AV’s mobility decreased, on a good day he could go to Poplar Market to meet his friends. Our befriending volunteers sat him in a wheelchair and escorted him to see his friends at the Chinese food store during lunch.
We continued to provide homecare and befriending services to Mr. AV until mid of June, Mr. AV decided to go to Vietnam because there was no further treatment available from hospital specialists. Mr. AV hoped that Traditional Chinese Medicine could prevent and heal his illness. During that time his health condition worsened even more and he started to have a problem with his bladder and as he could not control when to pass urine. He asked his ex-partner to buy him a return flight ticket to Vietnam, he decided to stay there for 3 months with his brothers and sisters. Before he left the U.K, our volunteer took him to his bank so he could have permission to withdraw cash at HSBC bank in Vietnam. We called the Barts Health NHS care team to interrupt his homecare service. We continued to use Face Time to call him every week. His health condition has not improved. When he facetime us, he has to lay on the bed. We do not know how much longer he has. We know he is almost at the end of his life but at least he is around his family in Vietnam. If Mr. AV passes away in Vietnam, we will complete our final support to tell his partner to return his property to the housing association. We will write letters to Universal Credits and DWP to stop his benefits. We still hope he will be able to return to the UK in September.
PS: Recently we received a call from Vietnam to inform Mr.AV passed away and he will never return to U.K
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