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21 Nov 2019
by Heidi Allan

A personal experience: how my employer supported my financial wellbeing during a chronic illness

I often write articles and blogs on a variety of subjects relating to employees’ attitude towards money and financial wellbeing, as well as the impact financial worry has on companies. I always write these articles based on the real life experiences of those around me, and those I am lucky enough to speak to, and help, from all walks of life. There are also times when the subject matter is extremely personal to me – this topic is one of those. 

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It always happens to other people, right?

For those of you that don’t know me, I was a typical Gen X – happily married, both with full time jobs and a beautiful daughter at primary school. In addition, both of my parents are disabled and require additional care and support. A picture I’m sure many of you can empathise and resonate with. 

I have always been someone who likes to be prepared. I like to enjoy life and live each day to its best, while also having a financial safety net, so that if something happened my loved ones would be ok. I didn’t for one moment think something would actually happen – it always happens to other people, right – how wrong was I!

The 4th July 2015 started as any normal day, but it certainly didn’t end that way. That day my husband was diagnosed with leukemia, something that came completely out of the blue and floored us all. He was taken into St Bartholomew’s in central London at 8:30am the following morning (Saturday) and he started chemo that weekend. There were so many things going through my head, including:

  • How was I going to explain what was going on to everyone when I didn’t have a clue myself?
  • What would I tell our daughter (she had just turned 6 at the time)?
  • What was going to happen?
  • Would he get through this?

So many questions and no answers – at least I didn’t have work to think about until Monday. 

It’s fair to say I don’t think any of us slept much that weekend, so when Monday morning rolled around, and life had to restart – it was with at least a little sense of normality, you could say.


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Returning to work 

My work colleagues and HR team were amazingly supportive. We had lots of really good conversations and I found it really positive knowing that the realisation that these things can happen, allowed them to review their protection and plans to make sure they were supported should they experience something similar.

The most important factor that made me feel valued and supported by my employer were:

  • Feeling like I mattered – I really felt like my employer cared, understood and valued my contribution and they really wanted to help.
  • Understanding and compassion – they understood, didn’t judge, and offered whatever support I felt I needed from them.

My husband actually said to me during his treatment that he felt he had the easier job, all he had to do was put his trust in the excellent doctors, do as he was told, and not give up. Me on the other hand, had to take care of him, our daughter, our families and friends, the home, the finances and hold down a full-time job.

Long story short, he fought hard and went into remission on New Year’s Eve 2015 – what a great way to start 2016! Unfortunately, it was short-lived as he relapsed in September 2016 so we had to go through it all again. It was easier the second time, we knew what to expect, our daughter was a little older and I had reduced to a four-day week, so I had a little more time to do all that I needed to do at home.

He went on a cancer research trial and had a transplant in February 2017. It was our little miracle, we had a second chance to create the next phase of our happy family life.

And here we are, facing the end of 2019 – never happier, never healthier, and never more motivated to make each day count!

The invaluable workplace support

If you asked me now what things stuck in my mind from my employer – both from a support and financial wellbeing perspective – it’s easy to answer and it would be the following:

1. Flexibility and understanding – I felt valued, felt like the company really cared and wanted the best for me. I wanted to carry on working as I loved my job, but they were understanding when I had to be flexible with school pick-ups and taking care of everyone. In return I did all I could to maintain the day to day and ensure ‘business as usual’ (which I pride myself on actually!).

2. Employee benefits – you really cannot underestimate the value of employee benefits. Having my family covered on my private medical, life and critical illness policies, and the critical illness paying out within four weeks really did lighten the load financially. For such a small premium in that critical illness policy to cover him, it really did provide the financial peace of mind that allowed me not to need to worry about replacing his lost income or worrying about how we were going to cope.

3. Fantastically supportive and compassionate manager and team – my manager and those I worked closely with were amazing, we had great open conversations and we all pulled together to ensure everything was done as it needed to be. They really are true friends that I have taken with me and will stay with me for life. Even though it wasn’t me directly that had been diagnosed with a serious illness, it probably had a larger impact on me than I thought possible. I really felt that I mattered and that my employer cared, understood and valued my contribution and really wanted to help. 

The author is Heidi Allan, senior financial wellbeing consultant at LCP.

This article is provided by LCP.

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