Group Critical Illness cover

I’m Alex, I’m 57 years old, and in March 2024 my life changed. I was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer.  

I was working, and still continue to work, for a small family run firm, with about 15 employees, as a financial adviser. 

I’ve always been active. I remain an active member of the local rugby club and have a great social life, and my health seemed fine.

At the time, I had no symptoms for cancer, but my partner had been badgering me to ensure that I go and get the PSA test, to check for prostate levels in my blood.

The nurse wasn’t keen at first as it’s not a normal, automatic test.

What they found with the test results, the GP said ‘I’m not too concerned, but I think it’d be worth sending you for an MRI scan’. 

At the time, I didn’t expect to be diagnosed with prostate cancer, I felt fine. But I was remarkably sanguine when they told me the news. I guess I’d prepared myself for the worst and hoped for the best. 

My mind immediately turned to ‘what’s the best route for me?’

I decided that the radiotherapy route was the best route.

I also began monthly hormone therapy injections. It basically puts your hormones into the menopause state, which is an interesting experience, and thankfully just temporarily. 

I had other treatments too.

I needed to pay for travel for lots of my appointments and to take time of time off work, which my employer was fantastic about.  

But at the time, it was the treatment that was important, not the finances. I wasn’t thinking about how is this going to impact on my financial side.

I didn’t tell many people originally, because, I think with cancer, it’s one of those ones where, you know, you’re going on this journey on your own, to a certain extent, and, I just told a few close confidants.

It was one of my colleagues who reminded me about the critical illness cover that I have with Aviva. And that nudge was a little ironic, given it’s a policy I recommend to all my clients, but I wasn’t necessarily thinking about it for myself at that immediate moment in time.  

And I must admit, I was blown away by how simple it was to claim. I completed a short form, and my case manager did the rest.

I then got notified that my claim had been accepted and payment was made. 

It allowed me to have support for the costs of going to these treatments, for medical costs, and also give me the option, should I wish, to do things like pay off a mortgage, to take the pressure off you financially.

It alleviated some of the stress associated with such serious illnesses as cancer.

So I’m glad the policy was there for when I needed it. You hope never to have to claim on a critical illness, I’d rather not have claimed on the critical illness policy, but when I need to, it was there for me.

Having now become a statistic, I now know at first-hand how important it is to have that critical illness in place.

For more information on Aviva Group Critical Illness cover, contact your employer, financial adviser or your usual Aviva contact. Or visit us online, at aviva.co.uk or search Aviva advisers.

My bone dissolving happened on a plane. And that’s when the infection went into my brain.

The Group Critical Illness cover gave me time, it gave me options. Because at a time when I didn’t know I needed it, that’s when I needed it the most.

I’m Claire I work in the broker marketing team at Aviva. My husband and I were on holiday in Lanzarote. 

On the flight home, something banged in my ear. I wasn’t really sure what it was, over the next sort of 24-ish hours or so, the pain just became unbearable.

I went up to A&E, within an hour of being there, I was unconscious. I was admitted into intensive care, about a hundred miles away from home. And when I came to after three days, I didn’t know where I was, I didn’t know what was going on. 

We really quickly found out that, you know, it wasn't an ear infection, and that the bang in my ear had been the bone dissolving between my ear and my brain effectively. And what that meant was, and that the infection that was happening was going up into my brain, which caused bacterial meningitis.

There was just so much medical intervention and so much involvement in making me better. I just wanted to get my life back. It had been, what to me, what felt like a really catastrophic medical event. I was in my 40’s. You don’t get bacterial meningitis. And I did. And it was just terrifying. 

One of the long lasting effects that I’ve had, is that I’ve experienced hearing loss, which is permanent. Being in loud environments was really difficult. You know, restaurants, cafes, just so, so loud. And, you know, it felt like a really big change.

My employer had been in touch with me throughout. They made it really easy for me to not worry about work, to focus on me and my wellbeing. But I wanted my normal life back. I wanted to come back to work. 

One day in the office, like one of my friends just went, you do know you've got this cover, Critical Illness cover?

Like they gave it to us like a few months ago. And I was like, I'm too tired. I just don't have the energy to deal with this. If I was eligible for this cover. It would just be absolutely a game changer for me.

So I plucked up the courage to make the phone call. The person on the end of the phone was just amazing. They listened and they cared and they heard what I had to say. And I didn't need to do anything. I didn't need to fill out any forms. It didn't, you know, it didn't take any more of my energy because it was one phone call and I was kind of that was me making my claim, and that was it.

They got all the reports from, you know, my consultants, and they gave me regular updates. And then there was this day where I was in the office, and I got the phone call to say that the claim had been accepted. And that just felt really quite monumental, because it just meant that I knew I could go and purchase things to support me in my new world.

You know, I was able to go and buy a hearing aid to balance me back out again. I could hear my husband's voice and my little niece and nephew. We got a cleaner for a year, just to get us over that point of my extreme tiredness.

So we also use some of the money to get on the plane from our local airport.

So I wasn't having to do as much travel. We stayed at a lovely resort, to get me back on that plane, to build my confidence again and not stop me from walking away from something that I adored doing so much.

So while life is really different now and it is fundamentally different. It's strangely better because I have survived this.

For more information on Aviva Group Critical Illness cover, contact your employer, financial adviser or your usual Aviva contact.

Or visit us online, at aviva.co.uk or search Aviva advisers.

I went for the results, and the consultant’s first words when I sat down in the office were, “I’m really sorry. It’s not good news.”

I'm Emma, I'm a children's nurse. I’m currently working in education. I have grown-up children 23 and 25, and I'm currently undergoing treatments for lobular breast cancer.

I had some lumps in my breast. I had an operation to remove what they thought was three fibroadenomas. They'd removed the fibroadenomas, but they'd found invasive lobular carcinoma.

That was a big shock because I really wasn't expecting that. My second operation was planned. It was quite an extensive operation, but unfortunately, when I got the results of that one, they'd found five different tumours, quite a lot more cancer than they had expected. They'd also found that it was in my sentinel lymph nodes. I had to have a mastectomy and they checked some more lymph nodes, again, not expecting them to be positive, but there were a couple that were positive.

I started chemo, and then I'll still need some radiotherapy and I’ll need some hormone therapy, probably more long-term. This was all quite a lot because originally, I was told I'd need about eight weeks off work. I looked at my critical illness insurance. Your head is in a spin with everything going on, but that was the one thing that looked positive.

There's not very many positives about being diagnosed with breast cancer, and there's so many worries that you have, but actually, this was something that I could do actively. The claim process was really easy. When the claim was paid, it was a lot of relief. I was very lucky, and I get good sick benefit, I get six months full pay, six months half pay, but I realized that I would probably be going to half pay. And actually, having my mortgage paid was a complete relief.

Chronic illnesses take a long time. You need the cover, to cover you while you're ill. It's an expense you can't afford not to take. But I'm just so grateful that we bought that policy.

Critical illness insurance pays out a lump sum and is designed to help support you and your family financially.

It’s there to help you focus on your recovery without worrying about how the bills will be paid.

You can choose how long you want the policy to last and the amount of money you’re covered for.

Your financial adviser can explain how Aviva’s critical illness works and when it would pay out.