Here are a few valuable tips Anneke Coetzer offers anyone who finds themselves beginning a similar journey.
- Get any persistent niggles that might indicate cancer checked out asap.
- If you have a suspicion that you might have cancer, [she didn’t, but luckily happened to have a friend with her], take a companion along for the test results. This can prove invaluable, because the moment you hear the news, “you don’t hear a word after that”.
- Do all your research on cancer while you’re (even relatively) healthy. It’s hard to absorb detail and complexity when you’re in shock or undergoing chemo-therapy.
She recommends reading the book “Cancer Research Secrets” by Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby (http://www.cancerresearchsecrets.com/#buy http://www.cancerdefeated.com/cancerconfidential/ )
This will assist with knowledge when close family and friends are dealing with their cancer journey.
- Get a broker. She belated used one of her company’s medical aid brokers in her second year of chemo. She succeeded where Anneke had failed in getting medical aid bills approved. “There were admin mistakes, dates were captured wrongly – all of which result in claims being rejected. If it wasn’t for that broker I’d be a lot more out of pocket,’’ she says. (Discovery paid out R200 000 in the first year, but she exceeded this limit by R31 000 that year, which was an out of pocket expense).