The news today that more cancer patients than ever need financial support from cancer charities to enable them to pay their heating bills reminds us all how much energy costs have soared in recent years and how perilously close any of us might be from financial difficulties if we were to suffer a long-term illness that forced us to take a protracted period off work.

It is difficult to see, however, what can be done to ease the plight of those in poor health who find themselves unable to meet their outgoings – whether council tax, mortgage, food bills or energy charges. Insuring themselves against loss of work due to illness is prohibitively expensive for many and often unavailable to anyone with a pre-existing condition. And who can afford, these days, to amass a nest egg of cash for a rainy day so that all the bills can be met?

No, the most heartening thing we can take away from today's sad story is that there are charities around like Macmillan and others, who are able to step in and, without judging people or shaming them in any way, offer practical, sensible and vital support to see them through the financial difficulties that so often come with illness.

Anyone who has a life-threatening or life-limiting condition needs to concentrate on their treatment and taking the steps necessary to get better or learn to cope with their affliction. They do not need the added worry of being unable to meet their fuel bills or being too frightened, because of the cost, to turn up the central heating. Macmillan does excellent work in assisting cancer patients manage their illness and support them through their treatment. Being able to assist financially when money worries strike, however, must be one of the most important. No one should ever forget that they are able to help primarily because ordinary people make donations so the charity can continue with its vital work. Let's hope that there will always be enough generous folk around to make sure the money never dries up, however great the demand.

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It has been a long-standing complaint that too little emphasis is placed on reducing demand for energy and too much on finding new ways of generating it. Cynics suggest that simple actions, like turning off all the lights in office buildings or car showrooms at night, doesn't earn anyone any money but devising new ways to generate power via the wind, the sun and the sea do.

Today, however, the WMN reports on a technological breakthrough, pioneered by a Plymouth-based company, that both reduces the demand for power and potentially opens up a new market for lighting equipment. LED lightbulbs are, as anyone who owns a torch that uses them, fantastically bright. They are also expensive when used in large numbers. Drastically reducing the cost of making them could open the way to a new generation of low energy bulbs brighter than the current models and much cheaper to run.