Cancer case study

Caroline lives with her husband. She has a professional background in editorial work and communications. When Caroline was 29, she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer – which came as a shock, as she had few symptoms and no risk factors in her family.

Caroline said: “It was a really scary time. One of the features that I think is hard about being diagnosed with cancer at a relatively young age, is that it impacts every aspect of your life. I was working full-time in a job I loved and all I wanted to do was continue to do the job and make the treatment fit around my life - rather than my life having to fit around the treatment.” 

18 months after Caroline’s initial diagnosis, a routine scan picked up that she had metastatic cancer, meaning the cancer had spread to her lungs and was incurable. Caroline began to accept that cancer was a part of her life, and decided she needed to step back from work and concentrate on her next steps.

Luckily, Caroline’s employer held a Group Income Protection policy with Zurich, which gave her financial security, allowing her to focus on her health and recovery. She was then offered a place on a phase two clinical trial and advised that the drug could possibly keep her condition stable for six months. After approximately a year on the trial, and various maintenance scans, she received surprising news – Caroline had no evidence any more of disease.

Following this wonderful news, Caroline got in touch with her employer’s HR team, and had a couple of informal sessions about what a return to work could look like - including the hours she might be able to work. Then, through their Group Income Protection policy with Zurich, her HR team approached our rehabilitation services team. Caroline was assigned a rehabilitation consultant, Vanessa, who helped her to make a plan and supported her to achieve her short-term goals.

“I can't believe it's been a year since I returned to work. When I started out, I had a very small goal, and it was to start working again and see what happened. I didn't really have any ambitious plans. It was through talking with Vanessa, that I was able to think in more detail about what my long-term objectives were. Vanessa was instrumental in putting together that plan and she then talked my employer through it - I don't think I would have been able to self-advocate.

“One of the greatest and most challenging parts of having advanced cancer and then being on a clinical trial, was the psychological impact. When I was returning to work, I was incredibly nervous about it. I wouldn't have been able to sit down and plan everything through and review it systematically - because I had so many other things to worry about. It was great to be able to ‘pass the baton’ to Vanessa and to have that completed on my behalf.”