We can often provide travel insurance that includes cancer (subject to a telephone medical screening).

Having a diagnosis of cancer can be traumatic. It is perfectly natural to have many questions about how it will affect your life.

After your diagnosis and treatment, you may feel that you deserve to go on holiday, in order to have a break.

It is incredibly important to be properly insured if you have any kind of medical condition. If you fail to disclose relevant information, your travel insurance may well not meet a claim in any way related to your medical condition. This leaves you open to serious financial risk.

One of your questions may well be, therefore, how will a diagnosis of cancer affect your chances of obtaining travel insurance?

Unfortuantely, there isn't one answer to this question. This is partly because, obviously, breast cancer will be different to lung cancer, which will be different to prostate cancer, which will be different to bowel cancer.

We will do our best to cover you, including any claims directly or indirectly linked to the kind of cancer you have or have had.

We receive referrals from hospitals, GPs, clinics and medical charities from all over the UK.

By asking you a series of questions, we will take into account a number of factors, including the nature of the cancer, what treatment you have received, what kind, whether it's finished (and, if so, how long ago), whether you're travelling within Europe or further afield.

We need to understand your situation as clearly as possible so we can give you the assurance that if we say we can cover you, then things like cancellation, medical expenses and repatriation will be covered by our policy.

Unfortunately, we can't guarantee to cover everyone with cancer - it will depend on your individual circumstances. But we hope we can. Even if we can't at the moment, it may be that we will be able to in the future.

What are the travel insurance implications if I have cancer?

Although cancer is often not the kind of condition that suddenly requires emergency treatment, it's important to have cancellation cover in place when you've booked your holiday. This means that if you become ill and are unable to even begin your trip, claims to recoup your costs such as air fares and accommodation will be met.

If you become ill while you're away (for something you think is unrelated to your cancer) and make a claim on an 'ordinary' travel insurance policy, there is the danger that your claim will be declined either because you hadn't declared the fact you have cancer to them, or because the insurer might decide your illness was indirectly linked to your cancer.

What claims might you need to make that you should ensure you're covered for?

As well as cancellation, which we've mentioned above, if you need medical treatment, this can be very costly. A hospital or doctor will need to examine you, possibly carry out diagnostic tests or investigations; you may need to spend some time in hospital and pay for nursing care.

If you become ill towards the end of your holiday and are unable to travel back on the date you'd arranged, you will need to arrange new return travel. You might need to book further accommodation until you're ready to return home.

Remember, if a partner or travelling companion is with you, they will have these extra costs, too. It is therefore very important that anyone travelling with you is covered by our policy so that any claim they need to make that could be in any way regarded as linked to your cancer will be met. An 'ordinary' travel insurance might decline their claim on the same grounds as they might decline a claim made by you.

In our opinion, it's simply not worth booking your trip without obtaining specialist travel insurance that includes cover for cancer.