Helping hand with recovery

My name is Helen Jones, I’m 40 years of age and I have a son who’s five – Jacob. I’m a self-employed mortgage consultant and I work from home.

I took my cover out in 2010. My son was born in June 2010 and I started my own business in January 2010, so my priorities definitely changed once I’d had Jacob. 

My role as an adviser gave me good insight into picking which insurance company I wanted to go for and I chose Royal London – not just because of the Life Insurance and their Critical Illness but for their added services like RedArc and Helping Hand.

My initial diagnosis came to light on the 15th of December when I’d been out with friends and I felt very bloated – and I put it down to maybe overeating before Christmas. I had a bloated tummy but that was my only symptom, I didn’t have any other symptoms.

I originally told the consultant and they told me that I had got a grade three/grade four tumour and I needed to have a full hysterectomy.

No-one can prepare you for that news. When the doctor tells you that you’ve got Cancer, the first thing that comes to your mind is ‘how is my son going to live without their mum?’.

I called Helping Hand and they helped me all the way through. So I told them what had happened at the NHS, I told them how I felt – I felt very lonely up until I spoke to Helping Hand. I was given Pat’s telephone number, email address and full name - so if I had any questions, small or major questions, I always had someone that I could contact, and for me, that was a lifeline for me.

When I first contacted Pat she basically got me to open up and asked me how I felt. At that time I was walking round in a daze for four or five days, so she got me to keep everything very calm and gave me some focus and direction on where we were going to go forward.

Pat covered a huge spectrum of things, so she sent me quite a few things through the post – this one to Jacob. So it allowed me to speak to Jacob about Cancer.

Once I’d spoken to Pat everything seemed to calm down, because I’d always got that reassurance that if someone at the hospital couldn’t help me, or my parents, or family, or friends couldn’t help me Pat definitely would be able to help me. Whatever question I had for Pat, if she didn’t know the answer she would go away and get the answer for me.

Pat called me and said that second opinion had come to Royal London and I was eligible to see another Consultant. She got in contact with my Consultant at Southend, my Consultant trained at the Royal Marsden Hospital, so she wanted me to go there, and that was one of the hospitals that Pat also researched for me too, which was perfect .  I had no stress with it, she called the Royal Marsden ahead, she paid for all the fees, so one I’d got there I just had to fill the documentation in and everything else had already been paid for. They knew who I was and they knew who Pat was at RedArc.

Once I’d seen my Consultant at the Royal Marsden, he had assessed the slides again and it had gone from a grade three/four tumour to a grade one tumour which was huge for me.

Since getting the second opinion meant that I didn’t need to get the full hysterectomy, it then allowed me to go away and have fertility treatment so I could preserve my eggs which then means at a later date then Jacob could have a brother or sister.

The process was very straightforward; I had to have an interview at the doctor which took about five minutes – when I was diagnosed, what symptoms I had – and then within four weeks my claim was paid.                

It’s allowed me to make choices; Out of my lump sum of Critical Illness it’s allowed me to preserve my fertility, take Jacob on holiday, and take a bit of time out of work really – as I said I’m self-employed so it’s just allowed me to sit back a little bit and just enjoy the twelve months of getting through chemotherapy and getting through the news.

I never thought I’d need to use my policy. I was fit - I was 39, I was going to the gym, I wasn’t overweight – and I think people think that ‘it’ll never happen to me’ and I was one of those people.

Without Helping Hand I don’t think I would’ve got through the last 12 months. My family was there for me every step of the way, but to have someone else do a lot of the work for you – like sort the fertility out, get in contact with your Consultant – was just life-changing for me.