Holiday Insurance

Public Archive
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Ladies and Gents

Further to a much earlier post and also from awareness day held recently, please be aware that the director for the under writers for Gill and Noble had changed and he will not give any leway. New criteria is that you must have been on the same medication for 12 months!!! Now that is rubbish! So if any one knows of any other company please let me know as have 4 holidays coming up.

Shaz

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Hi Shaz

4 holidays planned ! Way to go !There is a sticky thread on the forum with info about holiday insurance - here’s the link - hope it helps
breastcancercare.org.uk/forum/travel-insurance-tips-sticky-thread-t28027s0.html

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HI I always use insurepink and insurewith as they also cover me for BC related illness and were great help on the phone and very reasonable as i was still having treatment and only 3 weeks from finishing chemo when i went xxx Julie

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Brill to have booked 4 hols Shaz.
Julie insurewith declined insurance for me as I am still under 1 yr from finishing treatment 2 others declined too. Insure Pink accepted me and theirs was the lowest quote (to inc. BC)I started ringing around every co. listed on the sticky thread. Persistence paid off in the end.Jackie

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Hi, this is the first time I’ve done this and I’m a little nervous. Anyhow here goes - I’m a 44 year old female with terminal secondary breast cancer. I was originally diagnosed in 2006, had a mastectomy, FEC chemo and a reconstruction in 2007. Thought everthing was hunky-dory and then in Feb this year, after severe stomach pains, I was diagnosed with liver, lung and spine mets. I had 6 sessions of taxotere which finished in May. Thankfully, I had a good result from the chemo and I’m now taking Arimidex, Adcal and on Fentanyl patches (but that could change next week - my lovely Mac Pain nurse is pulling her hair out trying to get my pain relief sorted, bless her). Apart from the aches, pains and tiredness I’m ok - I’m even back at work 3 days per week. As other people have said, I’m still adjusting to this new ‘normal’ however I’ve had a bit of a set back today - I’ve been trying to get some holiday insurance to go to Egypt for Xmas but I’ve been declined by nearly every company recommended on this site and the Mac site. I must admit it’s a sole-destroying process I’m just about ready to give up - can anyone help?

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Hi MrsW

Here’s the link to the ‘sticky’ thread regarding holiday insurance if you haven’t seen it.

breastcancercare.org.uk/forum/travel-insurance-tips-sticky-thread-t28027.html

Good luck in finding some insurance.

Jo, Facilitator

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I used Insure pink. Very quick, very reasonable.

Have lovely holidays!

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Hi Shaz and Mrs W

I phoned down the list of numbers that Dianne (Jodie1) posted on the sticky thread a while ago. I found the whole experience totally demoralising and infuriating! The problem is the secondaries. I think insure pink only insure primary BC or if it is only in one area. I have bone mets in a few places, but they wouldn’t insure me even though I am very fit and healthy at the moment. They also probably now wouldn’t insure me in the future as I was a bit of a stroppy cow on the phone (after about 10 rejections or cover of over £500) I challenged their use of the pink BC ribbon, as they were actually discriminating against BC patients. The same was also true of Bromley insurance who had a huge pink ribbon across their site and turned me down outright with secondaries.

I had luck with Mia online the only quote under £100, the only stipulation was having seen a doctor in the past 4 weeks and having been given permission to travel! As I have monthly Zometa this isn’t a problem to me.

I wish you both lots of luck with your search. Keep us informed of how you get on, as I feel this thread will run and run!
Enjoy your holidays, I will have to try for insurance again in the next month!

Nicola

p.s Jackie - hope you got home safely

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Hi Nicola glad you got some insurance sorted out. Mia online declined me with no quote. think some of this might be due to where we want to go too. Got home OK hope your journey was OK.Love Jackie

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Hi

thanks for the info ladies - i have bone mets too Nicola but feel OK. Have a list of places i want to visit in the near future and planning a trip to new york for my 40th next year so good to find out what has happened with other people as i was worried about the whole insurance thing. I also thought that some insurance companies would insure you even with cancer if you asked them to exclude a pre-existing medical condition they would btu naturally you wouldn’t get any help should anything happen related to the cancer. Has anyone had success trying that?

DGW
x

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Has anyone with secondaries bought trip cancellation insurance separately from travel insurance? I’ve thought about doing this to enable me to book a holiday more than a few weeks ahead, but have read that most of them won’t cover pre-existing conditions either.

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Hi
When I used Insurewith last year cancellation insurance was included. Some of the companies lower the premium the nearer to the trip you are, but to make sure we did get our money back if we had to cancel, we had to take out insurance quite a few months before. We thought the cost was reasonable, about £180 for 2 weeks in South Africa - and I’ve also got a few other pre-existing conditions relating to high BP etc since finishing chemo! Make sure you include any people travelling with you if you would need a refund on their tickets etc as well. Most general policies will not allow them to claim if the reason to cancel the trip relates to someone they are travelling with having a pre-existing condition.
Nicky

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Thanks Nicky. I haven’t tried them yet so will give them a call next week.

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Well, I’ve just spent the entire afternoon ringing travel insurance companies listed on the Macmillan website as providing cover for us, most of which have refused to insure me. One that didn’t refuse outright was “Insure Cancer”, who said they might be able to insure me to go to the States for three weeks next month for upwards of £1,500 (that’s for a single trip), but will want my onc to fill in a lengthy form before they can actually make me an offer. Another – J D Travel – was dubious about finding me any cover, but said they’ll ring me tomorrow after doing a search with all their firms.

Some of those that refused gave me the following reasons:
1 bone mets in three or more places, even if they’re not symptomatic/painful now, and no history of breaks or compression;
2 three or more liver mets at original dx, even though they’re stable or vanished now;
3 travelling to the States makes insurance cover v. expensive and therefore too high a risk.

One of the firms suggested I might like to have a holiday in an EU destination, which would be cheaper for the insurance firms to cover – great, except that my cousin’s daughter is getting married in Florida, not Spain . . .

Any ideas??

Marilyn x (even grumpier than usual . . .)

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Hi Marilyn,

I don’t know if the helpline will be able to help you with this but it might be worth giving them a ring.

Jo, Facilitator

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Hi Marilyn, I was thinking of going back to OZ and NZ again a couple of years ago and shelved the idea…partly because air travel has become a more of a stressful experience these last few years but also because I was quoted astronomical prices for insurance. I had bone mets only, inactive cancer, wasn’t on chemo but it was because when I was first diagnosed, whilst in hospital I developed a DVT and subsequently a clot to the lung.
Hope you can get a reasonable quote…xx

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Thanks, Jo – might give the line a ring tomorrow. And Hi Belinda – feeling a bit downhearted at the moment, as you will probably understand. xx