The modern world is so busy - especially in the race towards Christmas. It’s easy to lose sight of the things that really matter in all the “busy”ness.

For a lot of people the realisation that they need to stop and ‘smell the roses’ comes when they themselves, or a loved one, is diagnosed with a critical illness or suffers a heart attack or accident.

This realisation came to my wife and I twelve years ago. We were both working full time with busy careers, a new business and an 18 month old daughter, when my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 35.  She had found a lump on the weekend and saw her GP on the following Friday; the GP recommended a specialist and due to a cancellation, she was able to get an appointment that same day.

The specialist completed a mammogram, ultrasound and biopsy and then we waited.  The following Wednesday we got the news that it was cancer. No-one can prepare you for that conversation, and no matter how many times you have watched or helped other people along that road, it is never the same as when it happens to you.

Five days later my wife had surgery, followed by eight rounds of chemotherapy and a month of radiotherapy. A whopping $62,000 of treatment.

The surgeon pronounced my wife’s multiple tumours as a highly aggressive cancer that had been caught “just in time”. We can’t know what a wait of another few weeks or months might have done, but we were incredibly thankful that everything moved as quickly as it did.

The key difference for us in the timing was the fact that we had insurance and could access private health care options.

My wife didn’t have to go on a waiting list. At that time a referral to a Specialist at North Shore Hospital was taking four weeks for a biopsy and then a further four to six weeks wait for surgery after diagnosis.

Health Insurance may have helped save my wife’s life - Trauma/Critical Illness insurance saved our home.

Prior to the cancer diagnosis we had extended ourselves to buy a bigger home, assuming we would continue to have two incomes at our disposal. Trauma Cover allowed us to repay that increase in debt immediately. This had a knock on effect; without the added financial stress, I could reduce my work hours when needed to help in my wife’s recovery and take care of our daughter. Without this cover in place our new home would have had to go straight back on the market, as we could not know when my wife would be well enough to return to work.

Trauma Cover also enabled us to choose a new chemotherapy drug, unavailable in the public system, which was statistically better at beating the type of cancer my wife had. It cost an additional $24,000; that choice would not have been available to us without Trauma insurance.

The ongoing costs of surviving cancer are not well known. There are years of specialist follow ups, possibly ongoing drug treatment, plastic surgery options to consider and specialists for side effects such as bone density loss etc. Health Insurance helped pay for all of these. For years my wife’s claims have well outstripped what we were paying in premiums for the entire family.

I am happy to say that my wife is now cancer free and we have been blessed with the birth of a second child, post chemotherapy. By sharing my own story I’m hoping to show you that if you can afford health insurance and trauma insurance it can make one hell of a difference. The other options aren’t great - liquidating assets, leaning on family members, or trying out websites such as Give-a-little.

As I say to different groups I speak to about health and trauma insurance, you don’t have to do this through me, just make sure you do it!

I would like to thank all of you that have taken the time to read my articles this year, I hope they have been informative and at least have you reviewing your own situation.

Make sure you spend lots of time with family and friends over the break, Merry Christmas and all the very best for 2019.