The Smiths were  an everyday family.Mary was the housewife, Peter had a regular job driving for Pickfords. They’d been together for 14 years and had a daughter aged 9 and a son aged 6 and a lived in a bungalow in Bramhall in the North of England. They were going to go on holiday to Denia on the Costa Blanca at Christmas.

 So life was stable and they were very content. They had lots of friends, chiefly through  the school that their children attended and a good social life.

 

 

 All of a sudden things changed. Richard had been having regular headaches for the past three weeks but didn’t take much notice of it – certainly no cause to take time off work to go to the Doctor. Jane had given him a packet of Aspirin to take to work just in case it became a lot worse.

 

 It was a Thursday and the day started just like any other. Mary was in her dressing gown in the kitchen making sandwiches for James to take to work. The kids were disagreeing as usual. Neil was in the bathroom washing.

 

 Then there was a big bang. It wasn’t like a vase dropping on the floor. It was somehow more worrying, like a large bag of potatoes dropping. And it came from the bedroom.

 

 Alice’s heart fell. In some way instinct told her something wasreally wrong, very very wrong. In a flash she was up the stairs and pushed at the bathroom door. It swung open a foot or so and stopped. She pushed and pushed but something was stopping the door from opening any more. She squeezed her head around the door and the blood drained from her face. There was James motionless on the floor, curled up face down.

 

 For a moment she tensed. Then she shrieked with terror

 

 It took 25 minutes for the ambulance to come and just 3 more minutes for the medics to confirm that Neil  had just had a severe stroke. Would he recover? To be truthfull he was seriously ill. The Doctors would be able to tell her more at the hospital.

 

 Simon did get better. He had four lengthy months in the hospital followed by 5 more months at a specialist rehabilitation centre. At first he was wheelchair bound but later he began to walk small distances with the aid of crutches.

 

 But at the age of 37 he would never be fit to work again.

 

 Could this be your worst nightmare?

 

 Information shows that men and 2 out of ten women suffer a critical illness before their normal retirement age. Joe was very young to have had a stroke but life is full of risks.

 

 Richard’s  stoke came out of the blue but millions of families do take out insurance cover to offer financial aid should something unfortunately happen. It’s referred to as Critical Illness Insurance. This typeof insurance gives out a tax free lump sum if the insured person is diagnosed with a critical illness. A characteristicly insured sum would be in the 125,000 pounds to 255,000 pound range – it’s for the insured to decide. (What signifies as a “critical illness” is is outlined within the policy documents but they almost always cover heart attack, cancer and stroke and usually lots of other conditions and illnesses as well.)

 

 

 

 

 Life Insurancecan’t help to take away the stroke but it certainly could mean that financially, things were satisfactory.

 

 

 

 

 

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