Property expert and former A Place In the Sun presenter Jonnie Irwin has revealed his regret at not taking out critical illness cover following conversations with his financial adviser and a subsequent terminal cancer diagnosis.
Speaking on AIG Life’s first OneChat podcast, Irwin (pictured) discussed the emotional journey of telling his wife just weeks after she had given birth to twins that he had terminal cancer and his mission to extol the virtues of critical illness (CI) cover.
Irwin urged listeners to contact their financial adviser to discuss critical illness cover to give themselves and their family “peace of mind”.
And he revealed his regret at not following his adviser’s recommendation to get protected and recognised the futility of his reasoning for not following through.
“I’d love to say I wasn’t made aware of it but I’ve got a decent financial adviser,” Irwin continued.
“Maybe I’m tight. I didn’t think, no it’s a load of money I want to buy a car instead. I think at the time I just thought, no I can better spend that money elsewhere. Where? I don’t know.
“I’ve not frittered it away. Maybe because I know what benefits it would have had, it just seems ridiculous that I didn’t.
“I’m a risk taker, I thought I was doing well just taking out life insurance, my mate Phil didn’t believe I’d done that.
“That was one positive thing and it’s helped me a great deal in getting to a financial position in life to know that my boys and my wife are more secure but how I wish I’d taken out that extra cover. And that’s down to me.”
Had to work without CI cover
Irwin revealed he was first diagnosed two and a half years ago but without his critical illness cover he has still had to bring in an income to support his young family.
“I needed money and the only reason I kept it secret was I’ve got to earn,” Irwin continued.
“I’ve got to feed my babies. I’ve got to pay the bills. And as soon as you say you’ve got cancer, people just write you off. People just think you’re going to cark it.
“I had to live with it as a secret. If I was to continue to provide for my family… it was really difficult living with such a black cloud and pretending to everyone else. Everyone else outside my tight knit group had no idea.”
According to Irwin, one of the companies he worked for claimed they could not insure him and so did not renew his contract leaving a “massive hole” in his income.
“If I had critical illness, I wouldn’t have been so reliant,” he added.
But while some employers had continued to offer him work, Irwin noted: “It always pains me to say or not tell the corporates that I had cancer because who’s going to think ooh he’s got Jeffrey Dancer [Cancer], let’s get someone simpler. I get it.”
Mission to educate people about CI
Irwin revealed his personal experience has led to his mission to educate people on the importance of taking critical illness cover out.
“I want to leave a positive footprint and I think I can educate people into making their lives better and if I can do that, I’ve got something my boys can be proud of,” he said.
“One of the reasons I came out and told people about my story is I want people to learn from my mistake. I didn’t take critical illness insurance out and therefore I had to keep working.
“Without work, I’ve got no means of paying the bills. And if I had taken the critical illness insurance out, that could have covered my outgoings and I probably could have come out and told the world a lot sooner. I could have two years of living a more open lifestyle and I want people to learn from that mistake.
“To be able to concentrate on your family and friends and concentrate on the battle with cancer or do the things you want to do is the most important thing.
“And because I didn’t have that cover, I’ve not been able to do that and so I implore anyone if they’ve got the opportunity, do it now. Don’t put it off.”