Preparing For The Future

By Author: Lecia Selbo
Total Articles: 49
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It is traumatic enough to be told you have a life threatening disease but the consequences this will have on your future existence and your families is often too much to bear for some. It''s not something we like to even consider, let alone talk about, but tragically at some point in our lives a third of us will be affected by cancer.

Every two minutes, someone in the UK is diagnosed with cancer and overall cancer rates have increased by one quarter since 1975. On the positive side, in the last 30 years the average 10-year survival rate has doubled and in the last 10 years the cancer death rate has fallen by 10%.

Dealing with the affects of treatment, operations, loss of work and the general stresses and strains this places on the cancer sufferer as well as their family is a huge obstacle to overcome and one that is costly and painful.

Outstanding jobs are done every day by doctors, nurses and hospital but they cannot offer financial assistance to help cover loss of earnings and to pay for expensive treatments and care that are not always available on the NHS.

What is worse however is if a child is ...
... diagnosed with a critical disease. Every year approximately 1,500 children are diagnosed with cancer and despite 7 in 10 being treated successfully the life-time affects on all those involved are immense. Treatment can last months and can be highly intrusive and disruptive.

Many adults have life insurance policies that now include critical illness cover but few people know that you can add children to these policies. Or maybe they don''t fully contemplate how much their own lives would be impacted if their children became ill.

At Friends Provident in 2008 4% of claims on critical illness cover were for children, and most were for cancer. According to figures collected by Lifesearch, you are unlikely to actually pay more for adding children''s cover to your policy.

Bear in mind though that there is a maximum payout for a child on a critical illness policy. This is approximately ?20,000 or 20% of the sum assured according to the Association of British Insurers. The amount you will pay will not only depend on whether you add a child or not, but also on the types of illness covered and any pre-existing conditions. Lecia Selbo took out critical illness cover with Legal