‘I want to go on holiday before I start chemotherapy – but no company will insure me'
I have recently undergone bowel surgery and a hysterectomy to remove jelly-like lumps associated with pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP) cancer, which starts in the appendix. It's likely I'll need chemotherapy this autumn so I am desperate to go on holiday, either a last-minute Caribbean cruise or a beach holiday in the Algarve.
However, I am struggling to find travel insurance because PMP is a rare cancer and doesn't screen. I'm happy for the insurer to exclude cancer, but I would like to have cover for an accident and the associated repatriation. Can you help me find cover?
– Sophie Jones
Dear Sophie,
It has become easier to find specialist travel insurers willing to cover someone with a cancer diagnosis, though it does depend on the treatment stage and the severity of the disease. A 'fitness to travel' letter from an oncologist is a pre-requisite for cover.
A Caribbean cruise is the most expensive holiday for which to obtain cover if you have health conditions. This is due to the high cost of being flown to Florida for treatment. Cover for a two-week trip for Sophie would cost around £3,000 so I suggested she stick to Europe, taking either a land-based or a cruise holiday.
Most insurers now require customers to start by filling out an online health screening which is a tick-box exercise. If the medical score is low enough a quotation is generated; if the score is high you will need to speak to a call centre agent trained to conduct enhanced screening before a decision is made.
Sophie decided to spend a week in Portugal before her chemo started and, at my request, contacted several insurers which specialise in this area.
Freedom Travel Insurance (01223 446914) offered her a single-trip policy to Portugal for £73.34 after speaking to an agent. The policy would cover her Type 1 diabetes and her current cancer diagnosis with a £2,500 cancellation limit. At Free Spirit (02392 419 080), part of the highly regarded P J Hayman insurance group, Sophie was able to purchase a similar policy online without referral to an agent as her particular cancer, PMP, was on the drop-down list. The policy cost £74.26, with a £3,000 cancellation limit.
A spokesman for Free Spirit told me that taking a holiday between diagnosis and the start of chemotherapy or radiotherapy is seen as lower risk by insurers, compared to taking a break during chemo when your immune system is less robust.
Other insurers specialising in policies for those with health conditions – and also with no upper age limit – include Just Travel Cover (0800 294 2969) and All Clear (0800 848 8608).
Your travel problems solved
Gill takes on a different case each week – so please send your problems to her for consideration at asktheexperts@telegraph.co.uk. Please give your full name and, if your dispute is with a travel company, your address, telephone number and any booking reference. Gill can't answer every question, but she will help where she can and all emails are acknowledged.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Teddi Mellencamp battling 'severe anxiety' during cancer treatment
Teddi Mellencamp is battling "severe anxiety" during the latest stage of her cancer treatment. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, 44, has been diagnosed with stage four melanoma which has spread to her brain and lungs and previously underwent surgery and radiation treatment before starting a course of immunotherapy and she's now revealed the sessions have left her feeling highly anxious for "no apparent reason". In a video posted on Instagram. Teddi said: "OK for those of y'all who've gone through immunotherapy, did you have severe anxiety? Just on random days for no apparent reason? "Like today I was able to walk, I did the [Two Ts in a Pod] podcast and now I'm just sitting here full of anxiety. Is this common? "What are things that you guys have done to help make you feel better? Let me know. Looking for any positive advice." During a previous appearance on her Two Ts in a Pod podcast, Teddi admitted she has been starting to struggle with the new treatment, saying: "Essentially, what we figured out with me was, yes, I started out feeling great, and I could do all the pods and I could do all these things, and I could go to all my daughter's horse shows and I could stay at my house by myself, and I felt really strong. "And what's happening with me is the longer that I'm on immunotherapy, the sicker it's making me." It comes after Teddi admitted her cancer battle would likely prevent her from returning to The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, after previously appearing on the show from 2017 to 2020. Speaking on The Jamie Kern Lima Show podcast, Teddi said: "Yeah, no. I don't have the bandwidth for it right now. I'm not somebody who likes to do something when I can't be good at it." The star - who has children Slate, 12, Cruz, 10, and Dove, five, with her estranged husband Edwin Arroyave - explained that the treatment she has received for the tumours in her brain has caused her some challenges with communication and she doesn't want to risk being misinterpreted. Teddi said: "I feel like my words are a little stutter sometimes and it doesn't mean I'm telling a lie. "Some people have to relearn to talk after having these surgeries that I had. The fact that I can do as much as I can do, I'm so blessed for. But it still happens to me, and some days are very bad." She added: "Some days, I'm just stumbling word over word. And I would hate to be on a show like that and somebody think that I was not being honest and really I was just struggling. And then them get the heat for it because how could you do that to someone that has cancer? "I don't think it would be the best for the cast, and it wouldn't be the best for me right now."
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Teddi Mellencamp Asks for Advice on Handling the 'Severe Anxiety' From Immunotherapy amid Brain Cancer Struggle
The 'Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' alum said she's dealing with anxiety 'on random days for no apparent reason' NEED TO KNOW Teddi Mellencamp asked fans for advice after sharing that she's 'full of anxiety' as she undergoes immunotherapy for stage 4 brain cancer The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum, 44, said she gets anxiety 'on random days for no apparent reason' Commenters suggested adult coloring books and edibles, while others told her to check in with her doctor Teddi Mellencamp reached out to fans for advice on how to handle the 'severe anxiety' she's experiencing amid treatment for stage 4 brain cancer. 'OK, for those of y'all who have gone through immunotherapy, did you have severe anxiety?' the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum, 44, asked in a video she posted to Instagram on Aug. 14. While lying in bed in a taupe hoodie, the Two T's in a Pod co-host shared 'just on random days for no apparent reason like today I was able to walk." Earlier in the day, she'd shared a video to her Instagram stories of her walk with son Cruz, 10; She also shares daughters Slate, 12, and Dove, 5, with estranged husband Edwin Arroyave, Afterwards, she shared, "I did the podcast, and now I'm just sitting here full of anxiety.' 'Is this common? What are things that you guys have done to help make you feel better.?' she asked, taking a deep breath. 'Let me know. Looking for any positive advice. Thank you.' Related: The comments ranged from adult coloring books to edibles, supplements to breathing exercises, while others urged Mellencamp to get her labs checked as anxiety can be a symptom of another health issue. Anxiety has been a recorded side effect from immunotherapy, with one study finding that as treatment increased, more than half of the participants had anxiety. The reality star — who has been documenting her ongoing melanoma diagnosis after undergoing 17 surgeries for the invasive skin cancer — confirmed in April that her disease progressed to stage 4, having metastasized to her brain and lungs. She needed immunotherapy, radiation and surgery to treat the tumors. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
How cancer could soon be detected using just a voice note
AI could soon be able to tell whether patients have cancer of the voice box using just a voice note, according to new research. Scientists recorded the voices of men with and without abormalities in their vocal folds - which can be an early sign of laryngeal cancer - and found differences in vocal qualities including pitch, volume, and clarity. They now say AI could be used to detect these 'vocal biomarkers', leading to earlier, less invasive diagnosis. Researchers at Oregon Health and Science University believe voice notes could now be used to train an AI tool that recognises vocal fold lesions. Using 12,523 voice recordings from 306 participants across North America, they found distinctive vocal differences in men suffering from laryngeal cancer, men with vocal fold lesions, and men with healthy vocal folds. However, researchers said similar hallmark differences were not detected in women. They are now hoping to collect more recordings of people with and without the distinctive vocal fold lesions to create a bigger dataset for tools to work from. In the UK, there are more than 2,000 new cases of laryngeal cancer each year. Symptoms can include a change in your voice, such as sounding hoarse, a high-pitched wheezing noise when you breathe, and a long-lasting cough. 'Here we show that with this dataset we could use vocal biomarkers to distinguish voices from patients with vocal fold lesions from those without such lesions,' said Dr Phillip Jenkins, the study's corresponding author said. 'To move from this study to an AI tool that recognises vocal fold lesions, we would train models using an even larger dataset of voice recordings, labeled by professionals. We then need to test the system to make sure it works equally well for women and men. 'Voice-based health tools are already being piloted. Building on our findings, I estimate that with larger datasets and clinical validation, similar tools to detect vocal fold lesions might enter pilot testing in the next couple of years," he predicted. It comes after research from US-based Klick Labs, which created an AI model capable of distinguishing whether a person has Type 2 diabetes from six to 10 seconds of voice audio. The study involved analysing 18,000 recordings in order to identify acoustic features that differentiated non diabetics from diabetics and reported an 89 per cent accuracy rating for women and 86 per cent for men. Jaycee Kaufman, a research scientist at Klick Labs, praised the future potential for AI-powered voice tools in healthcare, saying: 'Current methods of detection can require a lot of time, travel and cost. Voice technology has the potential to remove these barriers entirely.'
