The lender has joined forces with Macmillan Cancer Support to the launch the pilot Virgin Money Macmillan Guides to train customer-facing colleagues to provide emotional support, information and signposting to relevant help.
It is thought this is the first service of its kind to be launched by a UK bank.
In their role as Macmillan Guides, selected customer-facing staff will be trained by Macmillan to help provide the best possible support to people affected by cancer.
They will be trained to understand the individual issues these people may face, in order to enable and empower customers to take positive action.
This could include helping people navigate the financial support available at Virgin Money, offering guidance about the variety of support available from Macmillan to help with wider concerns, signposting to local community groups, or simply being there to listen.
The initiative is launching at a time when Macmillan research revealed over a quarter of a million people (270,000) with cancer in the UK (9%) felt they had no one to talk to about their worries because of the pandemic, and approaching one million (870,000 or 29%) felt stressed, anxious or depressed because of Covid-19.
Macmillan found around half a million people with cancer in the UK (16%) were experiencing some kind of financial impact from the pandemic in the run-up to the current national lockdown.
It estimated that more than 100,000 people with cancer (4%) were struggling to pay for basic essentials such as food, bills, rent or their mortgage as a result of the impact of Covid-19.
The Virgin Money Macmillan Guides will provide the support to people either in store, over the phone or via webchat, doing whatever it takes to make sure anyone with cancer can live life as fully as possible.
The Guides will listen to customers, understand their needs and provide high-quality support tailored to individual circumstances. The support service aims to equip people with the information they need so they are empowered to address the many ways that cancer can affect your life.
Up to 50 colleagues from across the Virgin Money store and contact centre network will take part in an initial six-month pilot.
Peter Dockar, head of customer value management at Virgin Money, said: “Sadly many of us will have been touched by a cancer diagnosis, either personally or through a friend or family member and know it can have a devastating impact, not only physically but emotionally and financially.
“That is why we are working with Macmillan, our charity partner of the year, to launch the Macmillan Guide role, the first service of its kind offered by a UK bank, designed to support those customers living with or affected by cancer.
“As a bank one of our ambitions is to make a positive social and environmental impact. Macmillan Guide is innovative in its approach and the role of a Guide will see specially trained Virgin Money customer-facing colleagues use their position to help Macmillan provide the best possible expert support.
“Following the pilot – which we very much see a ‘test and learn’ opportunity – we will look to roll the Macmillan Guides initiative out across our whole network so together with Macmillan we can try to help as many customers as possible.”
