Fired without notice - I have terminal cancer - what to do?

[Mothrasstillmoshing]

Sorry this is going to be a long post I will try to explain as best as I can but I need some advice please.
I have terminal S4 cancer but I'm managing fairly well and until December I was working my usual job with some adjustments and I'd had no complaints about my work etc.
I was first diagnosed in 2022, had surgery & chemo etc and was off sick for 6 months. I returned to normal duties after a phased return and was given the all clear in early 2023. All was fine until early 2024 when I was diagnosed with the exact same cancer, in the exact same place but more advanced than before. I will add that I received awful treatment in 2022/23 from oncology and was left with CPTSD/depression etc and it was obvious that nothing's different this time (both hospitals involved are awful, very dismissive and rude) which led me to deciding not to have any treatment this time and let nature take it's course. Two years down the line I am gradually getting towards the end but I'm still living normally with medication/pain relief/support etc.

I work 14 hours per week (NMW rate) for a very large medical type charity in their retail arm since late 2021 - so I'm a retail assistant in a shop which is a popular busy one. The adjustments that I have had (since about late 2024) are things like no consecutive shift days, extra breaks (rarely needed), no lifting of heavy donations/items, no operation of equipment like vacuums or steamers etc so not much really compared to the rest of my duties. I will also say now that I am diagnosed with ADHD and autism which I declared to my employer from the beginning and it's never been an issue. Neither has there ever been any issues with my work raised and any small issues have been sorted between myself and my manager. I've always enjoyed my job.

I was signed off sick in December 2025 because I tired, felt ill and my manager had been treating me differently and poorly so I was excessively stressed/depressed. I had an occupational health assessment last month which said I was fully capable to return to duties with the addition of no lone working, set work days and to follow the same adjustments as before but mentioned tiredness/exhaustion/tumour pain.
I had an interview last Thursday with my area manager (my manager's boss) and he went through the OH report, asked if I'd consider redeployment/WFH transferring to other duties/job (yes I would), discussed my physical health and medication (low dose slow release morphine). He gave the impression that it was doable and we had a refreshment break. When he returned to the meeting he said that he was terminating my employment immediately from that minute. He said HR will email the decision later that day and that I could appeal. That was it.

I am still waiting for this documentation to come through from HR and I've been told to wait for how ever long it takes. The company's own sickness guidance states that you must appeal within 7 days of being told of the dismissal.
I have put in a SAR to the companies data officer today because I have a very bad feeling over the whole thing - not only have I lost my income/job but I've lost my death in service insurance.

So what can I do? What are my options now seeing as my employer is already being obstructive?

I know that I have a Protected Characteristic under disability law. I have already suffered discrimination from my employer because they have refused to carry over my unused holiday entitlement in 2024 & 2025 and I had to lodge a complaint at the end of last year and in February they agreed to 'award' me my correct entitlement but I had to fight for it. My store manager is very poor and has a history (which is ongoing) of denying staff their correct breaks, being difficult when wanting holiday, restricting access to our own work records online etc. It was a disagreement over my holiday entitlement, plus she told me some outrageous lies, that caused me to go off sick in December.

Sorry this so long but I'm hoping that someone can give advice as to how to proceed.
Thanks for any advice xx

OP if you're not in a union, find a no win no fee lawyer, I'm sure they would take on your case and it would be worth it. Don't wait on the SAR coming back or even the appeal because speaking from experience they will drag it out as long as they can so that you are out of time to go to tribunal. If you get a lawyer, they will help you draft the appeal, handle the sar and the tribunal if it comes to that.

@Pandrea1 Thank you - I will take a look because hadn't thought of MC xx

To be honest the whole shop is a shit show. Until this year no one got unused holiday transferred to the next year (everyone entitled to 1 week as minimum) and if I ever queried it I was told that it was use it or lose it - fair enough until you request holiday and you're told no again and again. I dug my heels in and insisted on having my holiday transferred and they said no. I then had to quote disability law to them several times until I was given what I was legally entitled to 'as a gesture of good will'. As a result all my fellow assistants got their proper carry over entitlement too but just for 2025. The number of lost holiday hours at our shop alone must run into £££'s over the last few years - all because the manager admits that she doesn't like us taking holiday.

Then there are the NMW abuses. I work an 8hr day but get paid for 7hrs because I'm entitled to 1hr of breaks but the shop manager says legally we only get 20 minutes but as she's so kind we can have 30 minutes at lunchtime....and nothing else. One of my adjustments was that I get an 'extra' 20 minutes of break in the afternoon but when I previously queried the missing 30 minutes of breaks I was told that we donate it as volunteer hours. It's the same with these cashing up/end of day duties - the time that you take to do it is 'volunteer' hours although it's part of your working day and may take you 30-60 minutes past your sign off time.

Our HR does not provide email addresses for lower staff to use - we're supposed to go through their version of an intranet but our shop manager has been restricting our access to it for quite a long time so that we can't even get our payslips unless we ask for them again and again. Same with requesting holiday - all applications have to go through her and it was only in November that I discovered the correct procedure and still she obstructed our access to the only computer at our place of work.

• There will be an address to which legal papers can be served, and that address must be published to the public by law.
• There should be a whistleblowing hotline you can call to disclose abuse of managerial privileges. If necessary, pop into another branch of your charity and ask the till staff for it.

Get legal advice as soon as you can.

💐❤️

https://benefits-calculator.turn2us.org.uk/

Immediately claim the benefits that you are entitled to. You've lost your income.

I am going to send a letter of appeal to my area manager tomorrow morning - thank you to everyone who has advised that.
I have been far too trusting and based on the charity's track record then I really shouldn't wait. I think that most people are right in that they'll send the documents on the 7th day (Wednesday) leaving me no time to read it or will send it after and then tell me that I have run out of time to appeal. Funnily enough, one of my manager's favourite things to say when I've queried something is to say "Yes, ACAS have cleared that" 🤔

Thank you so much for all your help you lovely, lovely Mumsnetters 🙏

As another poster has said, start the appeal process.
Check whether your home insurance has legal cover included.
Make sure you get all your paperwork together (occupational health report etc) at the very least it's unfair dismissal as they haven't followed the correct process.

I am so sorry that this has happened to you. What a piece of shit he is.

If you have been there more than 2 years then he cannot terminate your employment without notice except in case of gross misconduct. It would be necessary to follow a disciplinary process to do that.

If this what he is done it would be wrongful dismissal.

In addition to that if he has dismissed you on capability grounds due to a medical issue without following a fair process the n you would have a strong case for unfair dismissal.

You need to get confirmation in writing from your HR of what has happened, or even better summarise it yourself in an email and ask them to confirm that it is a correct version of events and then take it to ACAS or a solicitor.

@Oddgain im going to assume you’ve never had terminal cancer (although I’m sure you’ll come back to tell me you have), but even if you have, the decision on how to proceed is individual to each person. You don’t get to
have an opinion on what’s odd becuase it’s not your body or your life.

MN never fails to amaze me to drag out the most unhinged people, who feel
so entitled to dish out their opinion that they would tell a dying woman that she’s cut her nose off to spite her face over cancer treatment. The woman is terminally ill. Dragging out her life for an additional few months or years - at a cost of m being miserable and uncomfortable for that extra time - is a choice only she can make. I really hope you're not like this in real life and it’s a boldness that the anonymity of the internet has given you.

Hi OP,

Im so sorry to hear about this.

I agree with everyone else, how they have spoken and treated you if awful.

Just to add, a lot of these employment lawyers work on a commission basis and get paid from any settlement they get you. So you don't need to worry about it costing a lot of money. Usually these things will settle out of court and you would get a pay out.

Once you manage to get contact details I would contact the higher ups within the charity and from this point on only speak with HR directly and not the people from your shop. It sounds like they are fairly incompetent.

A lot of the other things (no breaks meaning you are being paid less than NMW, the way the meeting was held, the holiday issues...) will be interesting to an employment lawyers an perhaps part of the overall case. Try and write down everything from your meeting that you remember. In future you can ask to have someone with you too if you have any more.

Also just to add nothing to stop you joining a union now. Maybe chat to them first to check if they would represent you.

Lastly, please don't let this stress you out as much as you can. You don't deserve to be dealing with all this and I'm sorry you are ❤️

I had an experience of attending a "fact finding" interview after a period of illness and it turned into a disciplinery without waring. A week later I got a letter of dismissal. The organization did not follow their own rules and I had a strong paper trail. I was a member of a union and their soliciter got me a good payout.

You have some excellent advice from posters upthread and I cannot emphasize strongly enough to get good legal advice.

Find the charity's address and send a letter by signed for post (special delivery) so it arrives the next day if you can't find an email address. There is probably also a privacy statement and that usually includes the details of the data protection officer, I've had some success using that email address before to get past all the bots and self-serve interfaces and the like and had my email forwarded to the correct person.

I am so sorry that this is happening to you, there are really some arsehole employers out there.

I don't know where you are based but you could contact this lady in the first instance. She may be able to refer you to someone local to you: https://www.moorebarlow.com/people/joanna-lada-walicki/

or https://www.abigaildaykin.co.uk/

Every so often you read something so outrageous it makes your blood boil and this is one of them.

I don't have any additional advice but posting in support and solidarity and I do hope at some point you're able to name the charity.

Two things. One, you don’t have to say everything you think. Two, you don’t have access to her medical records.

Either way, none of your business. Hope that helps.

this, am saddened and angered enough reading @Mothrasstillmoshing post re her shitty employers, why the need was felt to post such vitriol is beyond me!

Stupid comment as well as an appallingly rude one. Treatment for stage 4 cancer in a lot of cases is only to extend life rather than prevent death. Who the hell are you to judge someone deciding against that??

If they are a charity, I would collect evidence, emails, everything, and contact the sponsors and funders. Go higher up.

I’m just hoping these horrible posts are due to the usual shitty school holiday numptys!

@Mothrasstillmoshing I think the poster who said they are banking on an unfair dismissal payment being less than death in service is probably correct

One thing that might be worth doing, although think carefully, it might be worth contacting the PR department of this organisation

I probably would wait till the paperwork arrives for that. I don't know if anyone has any sense there, but a decent PR person will realise what an absolute disaster this is.

It sounds like the only response is going to be fight fire with fire here. The manager sounds absolutely horrendous. Would anyone else reporting to that manager be able to back you up? I mean in explaining what a dreadful person they are.

Please contact ACAS ASAP. If this goes to employment tribunal it is time limited. A lot of people time themselves out by thinking they are doing the right thing and waiting for internal processes to finish.

Thank you for all the great advice.
My DP has contacted someone who recently used a local firm specialising in employment & contract law and got a recommendation. So we'll make an appointment to see them asap.

I literally have no paperwork to show because I've been given nothing. I had a meeting with this area manager in early February to discuss my return to work and agree an OH assessment and at our meeting last week he mentioned (and referred to) the minutes/notes from our February meeting but never gave me a copy. The February meeting was to discuss my RTW but we also discussed my manager's behaviour because it was the stress that she caused that made me ill and sent me off sick back in December. Area manager said he was going to do a full investigation but that seems to have gone nowhere because he says that none of my colleagues would talk other to say that everything was fine and they were happy. Not a surprise really because what would you do if you thought that you'd lose your job or your manager could make your life a misery.

Oddgain has been all over the boards today intentionally needling at the OPs and being blunt to the point of rudeness but staying, for the most part, just on the right side of the talk guidelines.

Whether it's intentional and they are getting some kind of kick out of it, or whether that is their actual persona I don't know - either way they need to take a good, hard look at themselves and go and touch some grass or something!

I have nothing useful to add but i just wanted to say to the Op that this is an absolute disgrace and my thoughts are with you and your employers are utter arseholes.

I don’t think that makes sense. The death in service is a group insurance policy and a small payout is not even going to increase the premiums significantly. If they have to pay out an unfair dismissal claim that’s on them.