Critical illness cover

Hi CMN22,

So sorry to hear of your diagnosis, and I hope you’re doing okay after your surgery, I was diagnosed stage 1b in November and it is a shock, I’m only in my 20s as well.

I’m currently in the process of claiming on my critical illness with Aviva and will follow to see if anyone else has had a different experience, I’ve been back and forth about 3/4 times now with them as they’ve needed more info from my GP however if they’re in touch with your consultant it may be quicker.

I started the claim end of November but forgot about it over Christmas as I was recovering from WLE and SLNB and it was only when I enquired in January they hadn’t had the GP details yet! 

I know some people who’ve had theirs paid out in a few weeks so hope your experience will be more like theirs, but be prepared to wait a good few weeks and have no correspondence, if yours is the same as mine it takes about 11 working days for the case to reach an assessor, and they may need more details etc so it’s as if the wait resets each time.

But saying all that, I would 100% put in a claim, I believe any invasive melanoma stage 1 or above is covered and they should (quite rightly) pay out for you!

All the best with your claim and recovery xx

Thank you for replying! How did you find the recovery? I’m taking it easy and resting as much as possible but also want to carry on with life as normal too! I have an appointment at the dressings clinic in a weeks time so I’m hoping to return to work after this all being well! I do work in an office so nothing manual xx

Mine was on my face and only had one incision so might be different but recovery went well thank you - I had an allergic reaction to antibiotics I had during the operation (didn’t know I was allergic…) but that was just unfortunate timing that it was with my SLNB, could have happened with anything! 

I had mine just before Christmas and I took 2 weeks off mainly because I was poorly with the allergic reaction not the SLNB otherwise I probably could have gone back to work the next week - I’m working from home in an office based job so that helped as nothing too taxing. 

Good luck with everything and hopefully after the dressing clinic you’ll be back to normal, especially to keep up with your little one! xx

Hi both just wondering if you received an outcome from your insurer and how long the whole process took from submitting claim to the outcome? Fingers crossed it was positive. Thanks 

We couldn’t claim on our policy until it was stage 3 or above x

Hi! Yes my policy paid out in full. It took around 6 weeks for the claim to be assessed but I just kept in touch with my consultants secretary to ensure things were sent back to Aviva. Aviva were great I can't fault them. 

We are with Aviva and it says melanoma is not covered? 

My aviva policy states "any malignant tumour positively diagnosed with histological confirmation and characterised by the uncontrolled growth of malignant cells and invasion of tissue" it's states that malignant melanoma skin cancer that is NOT covered in which is confined to the epidermis (outer layer of skin).

our claim is under review, we were told this stage of melanoma has invaded the epidermis by 0.7mm.

does you policy state the same? 

So it's all about the depth and if it has gone beyond the epidermis layer of skin as it has then 'invaded the tissue' as per the policy definitions. Malignant melanoma is definitely covered it just depends on the depth. Good luck with your claim! If you haven't already I would definitely recommend getting in touch with your consultants secretary to check they have sent the forms back to Aviva. 

Ahhh brill (well not but you know what I mean) I have a derm review coming up soon, shall I ask them?