Travel insurance recommendations - stage IV breast cancer

[Caerthynna]

Hi all, I’ve been undergoing various tests for metastatic breast cancer: CT scan showed involvement in the liver, lungs and bone; biopsies done in both breasts and awaiting results, nuclear medicine bone scan next week.

Several months before all this, before I had any idea I had breast cancer, we booked a family trip to Machu Picchu plus a cruise in the Galapagos in late August. Assuming I’m ok to go, and since we need to get new travel insurance in July, I was hoping to hear from anyone if there are travel insurance companies that cover breast cancer that you would recommend, or maybe advise against using.

I’ll be asking the oncologist about my fitness to travel (seeing them next week), but thought I’d start looking around for everyone’s recommendations/experiences to distract myself from waiting for the biopsy results.

Sorry to hear about your diagnosis

This might be useful.
https://www.macmillan.org.uk/cancer-information-and-support/impacts-of-cancer/travel/buying-travel-insurance

From my experience with friends, no one will cover you for anything associated with the cancer.

Depends what you want covered, might be able to do possessions ok, but health cover will be either extortionate or hard to get. So sorry about your diagnosis. I think you should aim to discuss this trip with your oncologist, you might find its better to cancel the trip for now and get your money back based on your sudden diagnosis which should be covered by insurance you currently have. It's likely that they will offer you chemo, so it may not be practical to go away then, or aim for less extensive travel when you know you have a gap in treatment. You will have lots of appointments made from now on ( that often come drip-feeding through on a weekly basis) so would need to be available to attend these, or it could compromise your treatment. Lots of people with your condition find meds that can stabilise their condition giving them years, so all is not lost.
It doesn't sound like you have a treatment plan yet, so until you do, be prepared that this trip may no longer be a realistic option at this time.

You may be better off asking on breast cancer now forums ….quite a lot of information there…. Wishing you well

Hi. Long term Metastatic Breast cancer patient here. The insurance that is best for me is InsuranceWith. They screen differently to the others.

BUT I am sorry to say that your trip will be very expensive...Galapagos cruises mean you are days away from decent treatment which can mean a medivac off a ship, transportation to mainland and then transportation to a decent treatment centre. Also you will be in the position by late August of undergoing active treatment, but for less than 12 weeks. Insurance companies don't like this. Cancer treatment can throw all sorts of issues up including low blood neuts etc and always awaiting a scan or treatment that is not "routine".

I'm really sorry to say that I think you are going to need to postpone the trip as you'll be undergoing some robust treatment or recovering from surgery so I very much doubt that your oncologist will want you travelling anywhere outside the Uk in August, let alone to remote islands off Ecuador....cancer treatment means your condition can change dramatically within a few hours and you need hospitalisation immediately. I cannot see any decent oncologist agreeing to your holiday plan, and if they do, your travel insurance will be ruinously high.

Why not reschedule it for next year, when things calm down and when you will hopefully be more stable?

So sorry about your diagnosis. I have had breast cancer. I only travelled within UK staying an hour from a hospital on advice of oncologist during active treatment. Once chemo and radio were over I travelled but not needed to claim and did not have cover for the cancer itself.

There was a lady with stage 4 breast cancer on here who went to the US and she had insurance from Insurancewith which covered the cancer, think it was around £500 for US trip and they paid out when she needed a cancer CT over there.

I had a bad previous experience with Insure and Go when refused to pay out anything when COVID cancelled holiday on policy taken out in 2019 for 2020.

Those sound like wonderful holidays I hope you can go and love them. You may find a travel company if booked via one may agree to postpone or even cancel due to diagnosis if travelling is not possible. Some treatment success rates are affected by how soon started so best to get treatment asap but sometimes they can work round things.

Thank you all for the considered responses. We’ve decided to cancel the trip (possibly to do at a later date, if I’m well enough and assuming I get travel insurance) and try to get the cancellation fee back via our current travel insurance. As you say, there are a lot of uncertainties right now; hopefully I’ll get my treatment plan sorted out next week.