April is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month and to coincide with this, Scottish Widows is emphasising the value and importance of financial protection in the event that the unexpected should happen.

Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK, accounting for 12% of all new cancer cases, according to Cancer Research UK. There are around 41,700 new cases diagnosed in the UK every year, which is more than 110 every day, with one in 14 men and one in 19 women being diagnosed with this type of cancer during their lifetime.

Survival is improving, however, and has more than doubled in the last 40 years. In the 1970s, more than a fifth of people diagnosed with bowel cancer in the UK survived their disease beyond 10 years; now it’s almost six in 10. When diagnosed at its earliest stage, more than nine in 10 people will survive for five years or more, Cancer Research UK says.

According to research from Scottish Widows, however, only 34% of the UK population have taken out life insurance and just 8% have critical illness cover, emphasising their financial vulnerability in the event of serious illness or bereavement.

The research also reveals that 21% of people in the UK admit their household would not be financially secure for any length of time if it lost its main income as a result of serious illness. 47% admit that their savings would last just six months or less if they became unable to work.

Scottish Widows paid out more than £4.5 million in critical illness claims relating to bowel cancer in 2016, which accounted for 9% of all cancer-related critical illness claims that year. The company’s data shows that the average age of diagnosis for bowel cancer among males in 2016 was 54, while the average age for females was 53. During 2016, 59% of claimants were male.

Scott Cadger, head of underwriting and claims strategy at Scottish Widows, said: ”Advances in medicine mean that an increasing number of people are surviving conditions that previously were fatal. This increases the need for critical illness cover, which can provide a financial lifeline to those who are recovering from a serious illness.

“Many people believe that they’ll be able to rely on the state if illness strikes, and while this provides a basic level of support, we would firmly advise people to make their own provision for themselves and their families in order to provide peace of mind with the knowledge that there’s a financial safety net in place.”

For more information, Scottish Widows suggests the following:

Macmillan Cancer Support at www.macmillan.org.uk
Turn2Us charity at www.turn2us.org.uk