Ladies need to stay informed of the Big “C”

Today many women are equal contributors to household income and often play the crucial role of primary care giver for their families. Yet, surprisingly, women are still seriously underinsured, despite submitting almost twice as many critical illness claims as men according to Hollard Life.   With the focus on breast cancer awareness this month, it’s the perfect time for women to consider the importance of having the right insurance products in place to protect their financial, physical and emotional security. Not just for themselves but for their families too.

The big “C”, which accounts for the majority of critical illness claims made by women, is a life-changing diagnosis where the outcome is mostly uncertain.  And even though survival rates are up dramatically due to medical advances and earlier detection, surviving cancer is no less harrowing than it was years ago.  A new report by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Cancer Research (IARC) suggests that while survival rates are up, the incidence of cancer worldwide will grow by 75% by the year 2030.

Hollard Life’s own claims statistics show that almost 70% of all claims by women are for cancer, with breast cancer topping the list by a far margin.  The burden on healthcare systems, both public and private, is already evident in South Africa because cancer is far more expensive to treat than infectious diseases.

The importance of pre-emptive screening as well as early diagnosis and treatment cannot be emphasised enough in the fight against cancer. But this has to be backed up by a solid financial plan that protects your income and assets while allowing you to prepare for any lifestyle changes and afford the best possible treatment.

Beating cancer comes at a cost – emotionally, physically and most definitely financially.  Nothing drives home the importance of insurance to deal with a devastating health crisis more than real life stories of people who have been there. Samantha Gray found out that the ‘Big C’ really stands for the ‘Big Cost’ of surviving cancer.  This is her story…

Samantha’s story           

“I was a stay-at-home mom with two children for the best part of 23 years.  During this time I raised two beautiful daughters and managed to indulge my passion for food photography with an abundance of freelance assignments for various magazine and book publishers.

I went through a bitter divorce in 2010 but was able to buy a townhouse with the cash from my divorce settlement.  During this time, my financial situation took a hammering with pretty much only my medical aid and life policy remaining in play.

Both my daughters had moved to the UK to study and work.  I focused on getting back into the photography game full time (it was now my sole source of income) while dealing with empty nest syndrome and my newfound status of middle-aged, divorcee took an incredible emotional toll.  I worked really hard to get back on my feet and thought I was making it until a tumour was discovered in my breast in October 2011.

I started a new full time job: being a cancer patient with a brutal treatment regimen that left me entirely incapacitated.  Radiation treatments and the chemo drugs left me in so much pain, too sick to work in any capacity and just too tired to care.  After over a year of cancer treatments followed by an even longer recovery period to deal with the side effects, I hit the wall financially and emotionally. Sure I had medical aid, but there were still co-payments, not to mention living costs and so on.  I paid for out of pocket medical and living expenses on credit cards and loans and came very close to selling my townhouse to generate some money to live off while I was too sick to work.

No one really understands the financial and emotional devastation of a journey through cancer treatment and recovery until they’ve been there.  If there is one bit of advice I always give people when they ask me about my struggle, it’s that there is absolutely nothing more important than doing something right now to protect yourself financially while you still can.

Surviving this disease goes well and truly beyond how good your oncologist is and your chemo and radiotherapy treatments – those are just the start of the toughest journey you will face. I know that I would have been much better able to cope with this disease without the financial crisis hanging over me.

As a woman, take absolute charge of your own financial destiny, and do it today by talking to a professional financial advisor – I know that if I had, my cancer journey would have been much more bearable and less financially and emotionally taxing.”

Talk to your financial advisor

Being diagnosed with a serious illness like cancer can knock you off your feet – and knock your finances at the same time. Everyone should consider the need for critical illness insurance to help shield you from money worries if you become very ill. Hollard Life offers a range of critical illness products from the most basic to the most comprehensive cover.  Our Comprehensive Cancer Cover, for example, gives you complete cover for different types of cancer from stage 0 (known as early cancer) to stage 4. This is a distinct difference between our Comprehensive Cancer Cover and other critical illness insurance products, where early cancers aren’t generally covered.

Talk to your financial advisor to make sure that you’ll be fully covered for any treatment you need so you can forget about your financial worries and focus on getting better.