Travel Insurance

Hi SVR and welcome to this corner of the Community although I am always sorry to see folks joining us. I am Mike and I help out around our various Blood Cancer groups. I don’t have Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) but I was diagnosed way back in 1999 with a rare, incurable but treatable type of NHL reaching Stage 4a in late 2013 so although my Blood Cancer ‘type’ is different I do appreciate the journey rather well..... especially as I have had two Allo (donour) Stem Cell Transplants (Bone Marrow Transplants).  the first in June 2014 and the second in 2015....so I am now 7 years and 7 months post SCT.

As you see getting affordable Travel Insurance, indeed any price can be a challenge and at times the price could be higher than the cost of the holiday.

3 years post my second Allo SCT we did go abroad in Europe and was able to get travel insurance but can't remember who with... it may have been AXA.

This this year I have had a look again as I have had a lot of late effects SCT issues in these intervening years but all the main precondition companies like Staysure, Insurwith, Allclear..... were offering me very good rates for Europe (did not try for anywhere else) and this did include for a sea cruise.

In fact the main risks was seen as my other health conditions...... mainly I had a heart attack last year...... the crazy thing was my incurable Non Hodgkin's lymphoma was seen as 'Cured' !!!!...... as I was over 5 years out from treatment and officially discharged (although I know where to get hold of my team if required) 

I got these prices on a comparison sites and phoned and double checked but these companies tend to use the same algorithms so getting a clear price can be difficult and it’s not that unusual to be turned down or told to call the insurers. 

It’s actually more effective to call a few insurers directly as this means that you have answered all the questions correctly and in doing this a suitable policy can be offered and price given.

Do have a look through the 'recommended travel insurance' thread and this New Thread in our Travel insurance group as it's where the majority of recommendations from other forum members are. You can also look through all the individual members posts in the group as well.

Clicking on the link I've created will take you straight there. You might also want to look at this thread as it includes a link to a Travel Insurance Directory. 

Wow thank you so much. Your reply has certainly given me hope! I will read the thread and then start contacting insurance companies 

SVR

Received my first quote for annual travel insurance - £678.66. Will keep looking. 

I have to say that that is not a bad start …. you may find that if you are going on a specific date you may get it cheaper as annual cover tends to be more expensive.

 Yes, travel insurance per trip was going to be my next approach.  

Just to let you know I have purchased travel insurance for a year, costing £666.35. Single trip was going to cost £278 so I opted for the full year. Many thanks to the Highlander for including the thread in his email which pointed me in the right direction. I have learnt that 5 years in remission seems to be the point that most insurers reduce their rates for those of us in this group.

Great news and enjoy

Hi SVR

I don't wish to be a bearer of bad news but I have today completed an appication for my wife's travel insurance, Europe incl.  Spain with "INSUREWITH". She had her SCT in Aug 21 with no GVHD or infections. They have quoted under £200 for a year. It may be worth tyring them and see how you get on. You can speak to them on phone too which is always the best way to give all relevant info they need.

If you get a more favourable price, I'm sure you have the right to cancel your current insurance as it must have a cancellation period of at least 7-14 days.

Good luck.

Thank you very much for this information. I will certainly take a look

Hi SVR

Just  sending an update, I checked again on Insurewith online, put all my wife's details of her AML and subsequent SCT IN 2021 with no GVHD and no further treatment apart from routine check ups. I missed a couple of questions previously and it's now come back as £265 for multi trip European cover for 12 months.