Heeeelllllllllllllllllllllllppppppppp!!! This will make you laugh, well, we booked a trip to the Maldives before bone and liver mets were diagnosed and now that I’m trying to find travel insurance, I can’t!! Well, one company has quoted over £2000, which is a third of the cost of the holiday (makes me feel quite special, actually!). I am on weekly taxol and Onc is stopping this about 3 weeks before travel to make sure bloods ok etc. I feel fine and can’t really imagine anything horrid happening when we’re away,BUT you just don’t know do you?? Have tried MIA and all the others you gals have mentioned…anyone else got any other suggestions? I hate they way these companies just assume I’m going to turn septic and grow 3 heads overnight or something…
Hi
Just a thought - do you have any form of annual travel insurance that was in place before your diagnosis? I remember reading on here that if you have an existing policy (that hasn’t lapsed) you should still be covered as you did not know of your condition when the policy commenced. OH and I are covered through one of our credit cards and also our bank account - although my mets aren’t covered as I already had BC when these new accounts were opened. However I do use them for their travel inconvenience/lost luggage etc as their benefits are better than the BC specific policies I take out now. The only company I have found to be reasonable with insurance costs since my secondary dx is Insurepink, but you may have tried them already? Good luck and I hope you can get a cheaper quote.
Nicky
Hi Nicky,
yep that was me! it was a world wide policy with SwiftCover. Unfortunately it has now lapsed…
Good luck!
Xx
Bump
driven to tears yesterday after 2 long conversations with insurance companies.One total refusal because I have met at the back of my skull, one may insure me for £3000. Much more hopeful reading this so I will keep trying. Problem seems to be that firms wont insure you until a month before which means you can,t book ahead. Has anyone got round this?
Booked my ticket to Canada in July… ever the optimist! Was quoted £750 for 16 days over Christmas (more than the ticket I hasten to add!) and told to phone back nearer the date. Have just tried to get the quote secured and been told it is now out of date. I spent most of Tuesday afternoon phoning companies but no one will touch me as I have liver mets (which are improving). I am not on any pain relief and only taking letrozole and Herceptin. The only quote I have so far is ‘over £1000+’ and needs paperwork and conversations with my onc/secretary. It is soul destroying and very upsetting to keep repeating the information only for the company’s computer to throw the case out especially when I have been passed on by other companies to ‘specialist’ companies. I feel like a leper… I want to see my grandchildren over christmas and I have a new baby granddaughter I have yet to hold… I have always been so positive but this kind of thing makes me very very down and sad!
Oh Pat and letitia
That is shocking! It really frustrates me so much! I went to majorca with liver mets in July, I was covered for about £70 by Mia, I did have to see the Dr within a month of travel and she had to write in her notes that I was fit to travel. They only specified that I wasn’t to be currently taking chemo.
We then booked a last minute break to Italy in October and I didn’t have any hospital appts to get ‘permission’, ( and I was on Xeloda) so I decided to risk going without. I just phoned direct line and was exempt for anything to do with BC, she asked if I was having any chemo and I said it had finished (because it was my week off!) She did ask if it was terminal!!! - which was shocking, but I just said ‘not yet’ which seemed to satisfy her. So we risked travelling without, but I guess that is Europe and we have the EHIC so Canada would cost more. If you are confident that your ‘liver mets’ are under control, could you ask for exemption from BC. I did this for the first few years after primaryBC. I think bone mets might be different, I paid for full cover for these before my hip surgery, as I guessed if anything broke and I need to be sent home in a plane ambulance, it would cost a fortune, but with my liver mets in the Summer, I guessed that if i had to come home early I would be able to travel normally.
Anyway good luck with getting insurance, and letitia hope you get to meet your baby grandaughter soon!
MIA online have been good for travel during treatments. Having said that, it has been Europe nd Australia rather than travel west. However, give them a ring. You can take it out two months before travel nd need a medic to.write in notes ‘fit to travel nd endure holiday’. Hope you get somewhere…
Sadie Xx Xx
Bumping for Mildred/Ingrid 
I have been skiing 3 times this winter, to Europe, and been insured for secondary breast cancer in both lungs. The company, Fogg Travel, charged no extra premium but an excess of £300 should I make a claim for anything related to BC. A much better way of doing it IMO! I did however read on another thread that they wouldn’t cover someone to go to America.
Worth a try!
hi
ive just booked with mia after being turned down for (cysto sarcoma phlloydes) with a few companies if they didnt turn me down fo csp they turned me down because i live in the isle of man ?mia have done 8 days for 20.27 covered for everything
liz
Thanks for the bump! Interesting reading. Our planned trip is to US & Canada. Already partly booked before my DX with bone mets in spine at Xmas. Besides mild pain in lower back which now only needs an occasional dose of paracetamol I’m fit & well & working full time. We’re just waiting to see if hormone treatment has stabilised me (April) & then we’re going to finalise trip. Looks like I’m in for some interesting conversations with insurers!!!
Bump
Bump
Afternoon ,
Just spent the morning ringing round for travel insurance for myself , Some of the companies I rang were so unprofessional and rude . Not able to call me by my right name.
Please be aware some of the companies have no idea what they are talking about when quoting you
I have spoken to one company called Insure Cancer Tel 01252 780 190 , who went above and beyond the call
so helpful and would not just give a figure out of the air and went through my whole histroy and were clued up all about cancer not reading of a script
This is the company I am using for my trip in October .
Please do not go with the first quote or the cheapest quote , Give this company a ring
Thanks
Rosie chin
Fully support your post Rosie.
Insure Cancer went out on a limb to get me insurance for my trip to NY & Canada.
All other companies were a flat no & All Clear quoted £11,000!!
Ingrid
Hi everyone I have been trying to organise insurance for our holiday to Florida in October. I have really struggled with some not covering me to some with really expensive quotes running into thousands. I saw my Onc yesterday who recommended insure cancer and said that there has been positive feedback. I have already contacted them and they quoted a thousand but need to have Doctors report to say that I am medically fit to travel.
It is really frustrating as I feel that I stop my family from doing the normal things that they want todo. I suppose at times we forget that I am living with an illness as I just get on with it. Hope you all have positive feedback and your insurance is sorted xxx
Hi Ladies,sorry for butting in : )
Has anyone heard of insurepink or Bromley insurance? Ive read these were good and im going to use them next year all being well.
Donna
Hi Donna
Yes, have heard of both but, for me, have found InsurePink the cheapest quote for secondaries. They have insured me for European and USA travel since my dx in 2008 however it does depend on where your mets are.
I’ve just seen you post as well, racer, InsurePink have insured me on a number of occasions to USA and it’s been about £300 or less for 10 days, however I know they won’t insure for mets in more than 2 places but they may be worth a call?
Nicky x
Arghhhh, famous last words about insurance to USA. I have just been refused insurance from InsurePink as their underwriters have changed the medical criteria from ‘no more that 2 places for bone mets’ to ‘two or more’. This basically means anyone with only one bone met -pretty unusual in my understanding of the disease - can get insurance from them but no-one else. This may be different for Europe etc but I’m not going to Europe!
So, I’ll ask the same question as has been asked by others, are there any reasonable quotes out there for USA? By reasonable I mean less than £1000!
So, so frustrating. Whilst I am feeling well I want to make the most of the time I have and to be denied a trip, or to be charged exorbitant premiums (knowing that I wouldn’t even contemplate travelling far away if I felt unwell or anticipated a change in my condition) is so biased against us. I do feel the underwriters don’t understand the disease fully as all the medical screening questions never ask you if your disease is stable, or hasn’t changed, which must be a reasonable marker for them to judge the likelihood of a medical claim being made. Grrrrr.
Nicky