My wife was diagnosed with lung cancer a few days ago. She is waiting for an appointment for an ultra sound to see if cancer is elsewhere. We had booked to go to to The Netherlands in about 4 weeks time to visit children and grandchildren. The consultant at the hospital advised to cancel that trip and go as soon as the ultra sound test has been done .The results will take about 2 weeks, so nothing will happen in that period. But treatment will probably start soon after that., and we would be home by then.
I've tried several places for travel insurance with no luck as she was only diagnosed with the cancer 4 days ago. They will only insure if you were diagnosed more than 6 weeks ago as they say the result would be "stabilised " by then and the treatment known.
Whatever the result of the ultrasound the treatment will involve chemo etc, so a visit to the children would be quite some time away.
Any ideas?, or risk just travelling with an EHIC card as she doesn't feel any different now than she did a few weeks ago , before the diagnosis.
Thanks for any advice
Hi ColB and a very warm welcome to the online community which I hope you'll find is both an informative and supportive place to be.
Unfortunately, as you've found, it can be more difficult to find travel insurance when a cancer diagnosis is involved especially if you're still going through the diagnostic stage.
Have you had a look through the 'recommended travel insurance' and 'recommended travel insurance 2023-24' threads yet as you'll find lots of suggestions for travel insurance there? However, as you say "the consultant at the hospital advised to cancel that trip", I think you might struggle to get insurance as it could be deemed that she's travelling against medical advice.
As for whether you should "risk just travelling with an EHIC card" only you can decide that but I personally wouldn't. I've provided a link here to the NHS page on EHIC and GHIC cards and you'll see that it says that:
"A UK GHIC (or UK EHIC) does not replace travel and medical insurance or cover services like:
We advise that you have a UK GHIC (or UK EHIC) and private travel and medical insurance for the duration of your trip."
Wishing you all the best
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
Ah, sorry ColB . I did read it as you were trying to get insurance for your booked holiday.
Sorry
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
