A SERIOUSLY ill couple were forced to move 300 miles as they could no longer afford to live in London.
Nick Wild and his partner Phil Burden, who between them have battled heart attacks and cancer, relocated to Newcastle to cope with the rising cost of living.
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Despite their rent dropping from £819 a month for a one-bedroom council flat in Islington to £350 for a two-bed near Byker, the pair are still struggling to make ends meet.
Neither are able to work so say they are in desperate need of financial support.
They are now fundraising for furniture to make their new home liveable – and to pay for care for their sick dog Boris.
Nick, who receives benefits after a heart attack put him out of work, said: “While things will still be difficult here, they’ll be less difficult than it was before.
“[But] I don’t want to be on benefits, I want to play my part in society.”
The 53-year-old social worker was on a phased return to his job helping adults with learning disabilities when he had what he thought was bad indigestion.
It turned out to be a heart attack and, in March 2022, doctors fitted him with a stent.
To his horror, he then discovered he had suffered several heart attacks before that one – and he is now on 16 different medications to help.
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He has been given a 45 per cent chance of surviving five years, and a 10 per cent chance of living 10.
Nick, who receives around £1,200 a month from his Universal Credit and half salary combined, has been told he cannot fully return to work but must wait for his medical pension to begin.
Phil, 61, is in a similar position after his health took a hit following radiotherapy treatment for cancer.
They now seek out reduced items when food shopping and aim to cook most of their meals in advance to keep dinners to 50p a portion.
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.”
Describing their lowest point when they were unable to leave their old first-floor flat, 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.”
It got to the point where the only food we had was a loaf of bread with a bit of green on it.
Nick Wild
The couple were paying £70 per month for electricity – though this shot up to £154 just as they were getting ready to move.
And to make matters worse, Nick and Phil’s 10-year-old Labradoodle has a persistent ear infection which has wiped out what little savings they had.
The pup’s treatment has already cost them about £2,500, some of which has been paid back through their insurance, but they fear the bill could keep rising – and the vets require them to pay upfront.
“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,” Nick, who has worked in the care industry for 40 years, said.
The couple moved into their new home, found through Houseswapper, last week but it lacks basics like wardrobes and curtains.
They launched a GoFundMe campaign to help towards the “million and one things that need sorting, replacing, or repairing” and to pay towards Boris’ care.
