The Smiths were  an average family.Alice was the homemaker, Simon had a steady job driving for Hertz. They’d been wed for 15 years and had son aged 10 and a son aged 8 and a lived in a detached house in Cheadle in Cheshire. They were thinking of going on vacation to Benidorm on the Costa Blanca at Christmas.

 So life was secure and they were very comfortable. They had good friends, mostly through  the school that their son and daughter attended and a busy social life.

 And then things changed. James had been having intermittent headaches for the past two weeks but hadn’t thought much about it – certainly no cause to be absent from work to see the Doctor. Gemma had given him a box of paracetamol to take to work just in case it became much worse.

 It was a Tuesday and the day started just like any other. Amanda was in her p-jays in the kitchen making a salad for Richard to take to work. The little ones were at loggerheads as usual. Simon was in the bathroom shaving.

 Then there was a big bang. It wasn’t like a plant pot dropping on the floor. It was somehow ominous, like a huge bag of spuds falling. And it came from the bathroom.

 Mary’s heart fell. In some way instinct told her something wasreally wrong, very very wrong. In a jiffy she was up the stairs and pressed to the bathroom door. It swung open a tiny bit and ceased. She pushed and pushed but something was obstructing the door from opening any more. She poked her head around the door and the blood oozed from her face. There was Neil stock still on the floor, curled up face down.

 For a moment she tensed. Then she shrieked with terror

 It took 16 minutes for the ambulance to appear and just 6 more minutes for the Paramedics to confirm that Neil  had just had a severe stroke. Would he recover? To be truthfull he was very ill. The Consultant would be able to confirm how serious things were at the hospital.

 Richard did survive. He had four long months in the hospital followed by 4 more months at a expert treatment centre. To begin with he was in a wheelchair but in time he began to walk small distances with the aid of crutches.

 But at age 33 he would never work again.

 Could this be your worst nightmare?

 Data shows that 2 out of10 men and 2 out of ten women endure a critical illness before their normal retirement age. Richard was very young to have had a stroke but in life there are always risks.

 Simon’s  stoke came out of the blue but plenty of families do take out insurance to offer financial help should something like this transpire. It’s know as Critical Illness Insurance. This formof insurance gives out a tax free lump sum if the policyholder is indentified with a critical illness. A characteristicly insured sum would be in the 120,000 pounds to 200,000 pound – it’s for the insured to decide. (What constitutes a “critical illness” is made plain within the policy documents but they nearly always cover strokes,cancer and heart attacks and normally lots of other conditions and illnesses as well.)

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

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