The Kettles were  an average family.Jane was the housewife, Peter had a regular job driving for Easy Move. They’d been married for 17 years and had son aged 8 and a daughter aged 4 and a lived in a semi-detached in Cheadle in the North of England. They were going to go on vacation to Calpe on the Costa Blanca during the Easter Holidays.

 So life was constant and they were very comfortable. They had good friends, chiefly through  the school that their son and daughter went to and a pretty good social life.

 

 

 All of a sudden things changed. Simon had been having intermittent headaches for the past two months but didn’t take much notice of it – certainly no cause to take time off work to go to the Doctor. Amanda had given him a packet of Anadin to take to work just in case it became much worse.

 

 It was a Tuesday and the day started just like any other. Susan was in her pyjamas in the kitchen making a snack lunch for James to take to work. The little ones were squabbling as usual. James was in the bedroom getting dressed.

 

 Then there was a loud bang. It wasn’t like a vase falling on the floor. It was somehow more worrying, like a huge bag of spuds dropping. And it came from the bathroom.

 

 Alice’s heart fell. Someway instinct told her something wasreally wrong, very very wrong. In a second she was up the stairs and pushed at the bedroom door. It swung open a fraction and ceased. She pushed and pushed but something was prohibiting the door from opening further. She poked her head around the door and the blood seeped from her face. There was James stock still on the floor, curled up face down.

 

 For a moment she froze. Then she cried out in fright

 

 It took 24 minutes for the ambulance to appear and just five more minutes for the ambulance crew to diagnose that Joe  had just had a severe stroke. Would he get better? To be frank he was very ill. The Doctors would give her more information at the infirmary.

 

 James did get better. He had six lengthy months in the hospital followed by 5 more months at a specialist treatment centre. At first he was in a wheelchair but later on he began to walk some steps with the aid of a frame.

 

 But at the age of 35 he would never be able to work again.

 

 Does this sound like your worst nightmare?

 

 Statistics show that one in five men and 1 in 5 women experience a serious illness before retirement age. Richard was unusual to have had a stroke so young but life is a game of chance.

 

 Simon’s  stoke came out of nowhere but a large proportion of families do take out insurance policies to offer financial aid should something like this crop up. It’s know as Critical Illness Insurance. This sortof insurance pays out a tax free lump sum if the insured is diagnosed with a critical illness. A characteristicly insured sum would be in the £130,000 to 200,000 pound – it’s for the policyholder to decide. (What signifies as a “critical illness” is is outlined within the insurance documents but they almost always cover heart attack, cancer and stroke and usually lots of other illnesses and conditions as well.)

 

 

 

 

 Life assurancecan’t help heal the stroke but it could make sure that financially, things were satisfactory.