Hello Everyone,
Finished with all the yukky treatment and am on the Letrozole and Ribo pathway. Finally feel fit enough to go on a proper holiday and want to go to Norway for 4 days. I’m in the middle of arranging travel insurance BUT all the companies want a “Fit to Travel, Fit to Fly” letter before quoting.
I’ve contacted my GP and they tell me it’ll be £50 and will take 4-6 weeks to produce. Are they illuminating a vellum manuscript??? Have they not heard of MS Word and can create a template letter, and my last question - HOW MUCH!!! I thought I’d beaten this cancer bully to a pulp, apparently not. Have any of you got a better deal on your travel letters please? Many thanks!
Hi @madbatdiva , thats daylight robbery! I have to carry a special letter for my type 1 diabetes. My GP wrote it as I sat next to her, printed it, and charged me nothing.
Can you ask someone else ie your breast care nurse, surgeon, or oncologist? All consultants have secretaries who could type something up I’m sure. X
Thanks Tulip29, that’s a great idea. It stuns me how inefficient parts of the NHS can be and yet they think they’re marvellous. They think that cancer patients will just lie down and give in to this: don’t they know us by now? We have superpowers!!
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Try Insurancewith. I have metastatic cancer and they have never required a fit to fly note.
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Thanks Coddfish,
I am trying to get the insurance from Insurancewith and they are the ones asking for the fit to fly note I’m afraid. Best, Louise
Hi
I also have Secondary Breast Cancer. Like Tulip29 I have always used Insurancewith & have never been asked for a Fit to Fly letter. I have read that it might be worth having one if you need to claim.
My oncologist did write me a letter for my first trip (for my peace of mind) at no cost but she did say that it is only saying you are fit to travel on the day it is written!
You could try phoning Insurancewith again to get clarification.
Good luck & hope you manage to get to Norway 
Both my GP and my oncologist wrote free ‘fit to fly’ letters as I was going to Australia to stay with family for 8.5 weeks December 2024 to January 2025. My Aussie family are medical A& E and palliative care consultant’s so in very safe hands.
I couldnt get insurance at all…tried numerous companies. The length of time being one obstruction. So I went uninsured as some countries do reciprocal cover with UKs NHS. Australia is one of them. It might help you to check which countires have a reciprocal arrangement.
GHIC card…does it cover Norway?
I do advocate to get travel insurance but it’s what else is a back up.
Roll forward to this month — I want to go on a coach tour (can’t drive distance any more) to the Isle of Man and Ireland…can’t as coach company only allow me to go if I have insurance cover!!! Amazing isn’t it…I find it funny if I wasn’t so annoyed! Ha Ha.
Hi Rusti,
Thank you for your message. The EHIC card is valid for Norway, but only covers emergency care. On the therapy I’m on I’m unlikely to suffer any adverse side effects especially as Norway is an advanced medical system and I’m not going on adventure trails. (I’m saving patting a reindeer for another trip, and all the Polar Bears are in Svalbard at the opposite end of the country to me!). I just think it’s an indication of the ignorance around the cancer diagnosis by the medical industry if they are not in it. I asked my GP to refer me to the breast cancer team as my old surgeon (private) advised I was due for my annual scans and consultation. The GP responded with “you have a medical oncology breast appointment on 2nd Oct, can you not discuss it then?” I’ve written advising that’s for the bloods and tablets and the tits are handled by another team. I’m looking forward to the response:)