When he got cancer, this Toronto man faced financial ruin. ‘Staggering’ costs for patients revealed in new study

A Canadian Cancer Society report gives the first comprehensive look at the economic impact, including lost income and out-of-pocket expenses.

Dec. 9, 2024

Steven Hodges and his wife, Ewa, at their Toronto home on Friday. Hodges, an independent financial adviser, was diagnosed with head and throat cancer in 2014. He lost nearly two years of income and worried about losing his house. Giovanni Capriotti for the Toronto Star

While Steven Hodges was undergoing debilitating outpatient treatment for his Stage 4 head and neck cancer, he would still take a work meeting with clients, hiding the chemo ports and tubes on his body beneath a suit and wearing a touch of makeup to help mask his pallid complexion.

It was an act of desperation in an even more desperate health situation that had left the independent financial adviser fearful of losing his home.

“The pressure was enormous; I thought I was in a vice,” says the 63-year-old Torontonian who would slip on a facade of wellness if it meant securing a deal that would get him through another month.

Cancer ultimately robbed Hodges of nearly two years of steady income. Banks called him out on missed credit card payments, and he drained his savings trying to keep himself, his wife and their young autistic son afloat. “I didn’t want to let my family down.”

In addition to inflicting great physical and emotional pain, cancer takes a “staggering” financial toll on patients, a burden that is only set to grow, according to a new report that provides the first comprehensive look at the economic impact of the disease in Canada.

Released Monday by the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS), the study found that the average cancer patient contends with nearly $33,000 in costs, including lost income and out-of-pocket expenses for everything from travel to nutritional supplements.

Read more at the Toronto Star