There are no prescription charges in Wales. But if you are having cancer treatment and live in Northern Ireland, England or Scotland you will have to pay prescription charges (including for tamoxifen) unless you are exempt for some other reason.

There are guides to who can get free prescriptions on the Department of Health website for people living in England and Northern Ireland and on the Scottish government website for people living in Scotland.

If you do not qualify for free prescriptions there are two ways you might be able to reduce the costs:

• your family doctor can give you two month's supply of the drug each time (obviously if they only give you a month's supply of the drug on each prescription this will be twice as expensive for you)
• if you need lots of prescriptions you may be better off getting a ‘Prescription Payment Certificate for four months or for a year. If you need to buy more than five prescriptions a month, or 14 items in one year, it will save you money.

Many people, including some politicians and MPs, feel that it is unfair that people having treatment for cancer have to pay for their prescription drugs. There have been campaigns to try to change these rules but so far they have been unsuccessful. If you feel strongly about this you could write to your local MP to let them know your views.