On 13th May I visited Joanne Smith in Newcastle. Joanne is the founder and CEO of FACT (Fighting All Cancers Together), one of the charities supported by Insurancewith. The visit was for a talk and advice session for FACT service users. I shared advice on travel insurance for people diagnosed with cancer.
Read more
The FACT Team
One of the unique points about the Insurancewith travel insurance policies with cancer cover is the £1 donation to charity for every policy sold. We support a couple of charities through the sales of our policies, one of which is Fighting All Cancers Together (FACT). Today we have a guest blog from Joanne Smith the CEO and founder of FACT. Joanne explains the importance the money Insurancewith donates has to the work FACT does and explains a little bit about what the money is used for.
FACT is a charity, set up after the founders personal experience of cancer. And as a charity we are delighted to have the support of Insurancewith, made possible by people choosing our charity to benefit from a donation at the time they buy their travel insurance.
Insurancewith have been supporting FACT through the sale of their cancer travel insurance policies for over 3 years now. The donations from Insurancewith enable FACT to address a range of cancer related issues, from the varying perspectives of ‘support’, ‘awareness’ and ‘education’. We offer a range of advice, support and coping mechanisms, delivered in a gentle, non clinical environment. These sessions and events give the cancer patient the opportunity to bring with them a guest for support, and also family, carers or friends who also need support due to a diagnosis of cancer.
Topics covered in the support sessions include the practical impacts of cancer, such as financial/employment/benefit advice. Some sessions are gentle social events, and some are more targeted towards specific clinical issues such as treatment and side effects for particular cancers such as breast, lung or prostate (but not exclusively). Emotional issues such as ‘talking to your children’, ‘coping with terminal illness ‘ and ‘bereavement’ are also addressed.
Sessions are primarily delivered by FACT representatives staff, who, where relevant are accompanied by professionals in the fields of counseling/ psychology/ nutrition/ fitness/ medicine etc. In addition to this, sessions also address lifestyle implicated cancer prevention, mental health/wellbeing, healthy living, signs and symptoms of various cancers. The sessions encourage appropriate screening, and seeking medical advice where necessary.
These education and awareness sessions are offered to the wider community, engaging people of all ages’ disabilities and backgrounds in the program. Sessions are be delivered in appropriate ways in respect of age, ability to take in and process information and social background, to ensure that they are accessible and understood by those attending. All sessions are delivered using teaching information workbooks and aids, and are delivered interactively with those attending. The FACT team delivering the events have all had first hand experience of cancer, and experience of helping others through the cancer journey. Through this they fully appreciate how delicate a situation this can be, and how the gaps in the current provision can affect the sufferers and those around them.
Cancer affects so many people in so many different ways, it is vital that support is bespoke and relevant to the people needing it – either as an individual, family, or group. It is also important that we recognise and react to the wider implications of a cancer diagnosis, and provide support opportunities to EVERYONE that needs it.
This is a huge task – but it is made possible by the support of the generous people who donate to us, such as Insurancewith. Thank you!
The day of our award lunch finally dawned yesterday. As many of our medical travel insurance customers will know, we have been running an award in association with Genetic Alliance UK. We created the award to find the UK’s most extraordinary carer, and yesterday, we held the celebration lunch.
The nominations we received were of the highest calibre. Our judge, Andrew Holt, Editor of Charity Times, had a very difficult job picking a winner and runner up. But pick them he did. We welcomed our winner Richard Sutton and our runner up Suzanne Addison and their families to The Little Ship Club on the Thames. It is in the heart of the City of London. We held the awards presentation and celebration lunch there.
Our judge Andrew Holt and Genetic Alliance UK’s Director, Alistair Kent, both commented on how welcome these awards were. They recognise the efforts of carers, who people can very easily forget. Carers generally just quietly get on with caring. They do what they do for love, not recognition. This is the very reason we wanted to launch these awards. We feel very strongly that we should recognise and celebrate the work carers do all day, every day.
Our winner Richard had had a very busy week. Last weekend, he staged the Disability Rocks festival, which is now in its second year. Richard set up and runs Disability Rocks, whilst also being his son Max’s full time carer. Richard set up Disability Rocks to help people living with a disability have a positive experience of music and the arts.
Our runner up Suzanne cares for her husband Keith and their daughter. Her daughter has an undiagnosed condition, SWAN (Syndromes Without A Name). Coupled with being a fulltime carer, she also spends her time fundraising for charity. She also raises awareness of Swan UK. This charity supports people who have children with undiagnosed conditions.
This award was initially instigated through my own experience of being cared for when I was diagnoses with cancer. However, I have been completely overwhelmed by the nominations we received for this award. They included people caring fulltime for their loved ones. They were also reaching out to help others through their experiences. Truly humbling.
As regular readers of our blog will know, back in April we launched our Who Cares Award to find the UK’s most extraordinary carer.
Over the years through our medical conditions travel insurance policies, we have helped thousands of people take relaxing breaks.
This gives them the much needed peace of mind that if something goes wrong, we will look after them. In creating the Who Cares Award, we have taken that one step further. We are recognising those that care, many dedicating their life to help others.
Read more
Further to my original blog, the nominations for our “Who Cares Award” have now closed. I have been going through the nominations this morning. The nominees and their stories have amazed me. I will admit tears have been shed.
The idea behind the awards was to recognise the selfless work carers do and the sacrifices they make. It was also to hi-light the fact that anyone can become a carer. It is not a job you necessarily apply for. If a family member or loved one becomes ill or has an accident, they can no longer look after themselves. You automatically step in. Many carers give up work to care, and this can have a big impact on the family finances. Some carers work and care. All of them give up their normal lives and things that people take for granted, such as holidays or something as simple as an evening out.
Read more
