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Blog 2 Lifestyle
Trevor never sat still. Trevor had been based in Singapore more than ten years, on and off, jetting about, yo-yoing back to London, across to Europe, over to the USA, to India, Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Pakistan, and running in ‘the hash’ (paperchase) through the Singapore jungle on Monday nights.
He’d trekked to the Himalayas, (three parts) many volcanoes in Indonesia, and Mount Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo. Also climbed in Scotland up Ben Nevis.
He skis on black runs, ‘depends how black they are.’ He is ‘not scared of steepness.’ He does not do moguls which he tackled once after a day’s lesson, ‘as that requires technique’.
As for the motor bike(s), he did have an international race license for three years or more.
He once told me and his mother he had sold his motor bike. We were very glad. Cars are much safer. As one of the major car manufacturers said in an advertisement, ‘Buy your son a motorbike for his last birthday.’
We were so relieved. The following week he bought a new bike.
Insurance
On hearing somebody has cancer, one of the first things you ask is, what health insurance do you have? This is not a question you can easily ask about riding a motor bike. But it seems a more reasonable question to ask when you are dealing with cancer and know the other person may be in hospital and you will have to deal with doctors and hospital letters.
And how would it affect his pension?
Although Trevor was working overseas and paying overseas tax, he was born in Britain, had an National Insurance number, and Trevor had kept up all his payments to the NHS. In fact he was told that he had paid more than necessary, because the law had changed to allow you to stop certain taxes at the age of 50, but he had continued paying them.
Now that he has cancer, I understand he no longer has the option of joining BUPA.
Then there’s travel insurance. Insurers will not insure you if you travel against medical advice. We always used to discuss this when there were incidents abroad. Once he was willing to go to an area of a foreign country which was away from the capital where bombs had been dropped. Then the company said that even if he was prepared to take the risk, they weren’t. Not on humanitarian grounds but financial ones. I don’t suppose that senior people cared much in advance, but they had to consider not just the inconvenience of losing a member of staff but the financial loss. The insurance company had told them that staff should not travel.
I had read in the expat newspapers similar instructions. Your insurance company would not cover you if you travelled when the Foreign Office said you mustn’t. Updates were available on line.
You might feel like characters in an Agatha Christie whodunnit, that if you were dying of cancer, you might as well live dangerously. But people in Agatha Christie novels did not think of insurance (unless they were fraudulently claiming on it and the whole plot hinged on that).
Risk-taker
I would describe Trevor as a risk-taker. I would not describe myself as a risk taker. Trevor skis. I gave up skiing. The first time I fell over.
Trevor prepares for a marathon by running up and down the stairs of a Singapore apartment block to the tenth floor. He adds a rucksack with more and more weights.
Trevor was still riding a motor bike. I thought the greatest risk to Trevor’s life was the motorbike. Now he has had to give up the motorbike.
Take care
While his immune system is down, in the middle of the 21 day treatment cycle, he cannot risk a cut getting infected.
So no bike rides. No jungle runs. No sharp knives. Be careful opening tins.
Don’t touch wheelie bins. Take shoes off when you come in the house. Wash with disinfectant gel when you come in the house. Leave your shoes and outdoor clothes by the door. Wash before meals. Before touching plates to lay the table. Before unloading supermarket food into the fridge.
Do not use trains at busy times. Separate bathrooms are best. Others could catch something from you.
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