Travel Insurance

Hello Gary Chubby42 

Your question has been asked many times and in fact I am writing this on my balcony in Turkey. . We do have a specialist forum for this and here's the link:

Travel insurance forum for cancer patients 

From a personal point of view I am a T3aN0M0 with type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure (controlled by pills) and my wife has issues (medical I should add) too. As our place in Turkey is in Asia we need worldwide travel insurance and with Insurancewith it's costing about £780 per annum.

My advice is to contact the various travel insurance companies by telephone to get the best quotes. That way you know you have answered the questions you need to and you know they have asked what they want.

As to 

Chubby42 said:

is my illness Terminal.

well - we are all going to die - we just don't know what from.

Good luck with getting sorted and I hope you enjoy a cracking holiday.

Best wishes - Brian.

Hello Gary Chubby42 . There are many on this site who are living for a lot longer than originally anticipated even though they have stage 4 cancer, my husband included. The experts don't like to predict it nowadays because it can depend on how the cancer reacts to the treatment and also how well the patient tolerates it. Your initial treatment of the Prostatectomy and then radiotherapy was designed to keep you on the curative pathway but it sounds as if some cancer cells had already seeded. What treatments are available can depend on what type of metastases you have and where, plus the type of treatment already had, but certainly there is a lot more available now compared to when you were first diagnosed. Abiraterone with Prednisone is one of them but it does need careful monitoring as it can affect the liver bloods. Targeted radiotherapy might be an option if you only have 2 or 3 sites of metastases away from the area already treated with radiotherapy. Beyond this there are other treatments available to keep you going for years, the aim being to provide you with as good a quality of life as possible and allow you to enjoy your holidays.

Ask whatever you like and we will try and help.

Hi Chubby42 , 

my OH is on a palliative treatment plan and not been told he is terminal as yet. So I just put in all his details and tried many companies  . insurance with and holiday safe were the most suitable for his cancer . We had quotes from £5000 down . Total rip off 

best wishes 

Liz & OH xx

Hi Millibob

Thanks for the reply, we are off to Turkey in May and Spain in September. 

I am stage4 but generally feel pretty well my cancer has return and about to start on a drug that can have some nasty side effects all be it rare. 

So I was thinking about been careful and to cover my bases. 

Cheers thanks again. 

Thanks Johnam for the reply.

Ouch £5k down not worth going on holiday or would probably take the risk at anywhere around that amount.

Still feel healthy enough at the moment see how it goes may just still get some quotes. 

Cheers thanks 

Hi Alwayshope thanks for replying. 

Sorry I haven't updated my bio for a while, I have had targeted RT twice in the last 4yrs of which one on my lower back caused a break in my lower spine, and last year I had RT on my neck so far OK but with micro fractures. 

My MO Oncologist thinks I maybe pushing my luck, it looks like it may have come back again but in the middle of my spine, it seems to be just spinal reoccurring at this stage. So I've been recommended Abiraterone with a steroid. 

I do feel well in myself and just take it easy with lifting things. 

Maybe I'll be fine without the extra medical cover but I thought just incase. 

Not sure of the costs but I certainly would draw the line at anything over £500.

Cheers and many thanks 

We are paying £660 I think for the two of us . So quite happy with that as I also have health issues . That’s with Holiday Safe as they came back with a lower quote as I sent a cheeky chatweb saying they were stealing from the sick and why would they actually go on holiday if they were not  fit enough to do so. 

 We’re just taking the minimal as where we are going it’s a British overseas territory. 

let us know how you get in 

ps that’s for the year 

all the best 

Liz & OH xx

The advantage of having Abiraterone in your situation is that if/when it fails to keep the cancer under control then you have the option of something like Enzalutamide as a sequential therapy whereas it does not work as well if you start with the Enzalutamide and then switch to Abiraterone. For multiple bone mets there is Radium 223. This is only the start of what is available depending on your fitness level but keeping as fit as possible will help you deal with the side effects from the treatment.

The Abiraterone can also throw your potassium levels out and an easy solution is to have a banana a day. The other thing to ask about is Calcium and vitamin D supplements along with bone strengthening drugs as the HT can lead to bone loss.

Hiya 

I like to think I have most bases covered, I take vitamins D, K2 and calcium citrate with potassium and magnesium but a banana a day still wouldn't go astray. I'm also on bone strengthening meds.

I think I heard about that taking Enzalutamide 2nd but thanks for the reminder.

Cheers thanks again 

Chubby42,

Talking to lots of men with incurable PC (stages 4 and 5) they all use the word incurable.  Then in the news last year Chris Hoy came out with incurable PC, but the press all labelled it as teminal, I don't know if that was so it would be a better story, more "newsworthy"

I read Chris's book, and he has completed his chemo.  At first he was saying on the news he had 3 years to live.  Many men with incurable PC have been contiuing on their curative path for many years.

I don't know whether travel insurance companies actually get the difference between incurable and terminal.  Unless it is just a way of charging higher premiums.

My travel insurance is through the Martin Lewis TV show, I signed up for his weekly emails and there is a search engine there which I used, last year an annual policy inc cruising but not USA was just under £300 for the 2 of us.

This year it went up to £450+  Still good compared to some companies.  The hardest thing is filling out the online forms, you get so far...then they just kick you out.  There must be buzz words and as soon as you use one...out you go...start again!

I was stage 2 gleason 3+4 and am now 3 years in remission but my other pre existing conditions are massive.