Blogs & News

Aged just 26 Police Officer Shawn DePasquale is devastated with colon cancer diagnosis

Graham Briar & partner plea for financial help for heart surgery

Dive instructor & Oxford University maths graduate fights for life after massive stroke aged 39

A diving instructor is fighting for his life in a Thai hospital after suffering a stroke in his sleep.

Dan Robinson, 39, who is originally from Deighton, suffered a stroke on Ko Tao, an island in the Gulf of Thailand where he has been working as a dive instructor.

The former Greenhead College student, who has been living in Thailand for several years, was taken ill on Wednesday - a year to the day since he married his partner Jurait.

Cancer sufferer Eimear Coghlan battled bosses who accused her of not working during life-saving treatment.

Eimear Coghlan has won a £50,000 legal battle against her former employers after they harassed her for taking time off to get life-saving treatment.

Eimear Coghlan, 34, was made to work in a 'hostile and offensive' environment by her boss Poonam Dhawan-Leach after the pair clashed over her missing work.

Reece Holt, of Church Park in Overton, is nearing the end of a gruelling course of chemotherapy following his brain tumour diagnosis last year. Reece with mum Rachel.

A mum who spent £700 extra a month on petrol to visit her poorly son in hospital has backed a travel cost campaign to help other families.

Rachel O’Neil, from Overton, spent more on petrol to travel to Clatterbridge Hospital and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool where her son Reece Holt was receiving treatment for a brain tumour.

Fewer than 1 in 10 have critical illness insurance despite the immense need

Scottish Widows said it was “astonishing” fewer than one in 10 of the UK population have critical illness insurance, as it announced bowel cancer accounted for 12 per cent of all cancer-related critical illness claims it dealt with in 2014.

The company paid out more than £6.5m in critical illness claims relating to bowel cancer, and said the average age of diagnosis among males in 2014 was 50. For females the average age was 52.

Coinciding with April’s Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, Scottish Widows published the figures to emphasise the value and importance of financial protection.

Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK, with around 110 cases diagnosed every day. One in 14 men and one in 19 women will be diagnosed with this type of cancer during their lifetime.

David Hollingworth, associate director at London & Country, said “It’s more expensive than term assurance but that’s because we’re sadly more likely to be more affected by these critical illnesses. It can be invaluable cover to help deal with difficult and stressful situations,” he said.

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Brain injuries at any age are dramatic but at age 24 whilst overseas without insurance they become very problematic

In January 2016 Owen Auskerry - a 24 year old - from Scotland tragically suffered a brain aneurysm (a burst blood vessel) whilst in Thailand.

At the time of the incident Owen was flown from Nakhon Si Thammarat , some 380km , to a private hospital in Bangkok after a series of seizures.

Owen underwent a 3 1/2 hour brain surgery whilst his parents made arrangements to fly to the Thai capital to be by his side.

The medical costs rose steeply very quickly and concerns over his long-term care forced his family to turn to crowdfunding website GoFundMe for help.

It was further reported at the time that "The cost of his medical treatment in Thailand and the financial implications of his parents going out there to help look after him, as well to bring him home have been and will continue to be considerable".