Critical Illnesses such as cancer, a heart attack, or a stroke can happen to you at any point in your life regardless of how healthy you are. This plan is designed to pay a lump sum to you at the point of diagnosis of a covered critical conditions. When a doctor delivers the news that you are suffering from a critical condition they would normally advise that you stay off work for a period of time, due to the intensive treatment and rehabilitation you would be under and one option here would be to use the proceeds of this plan to either cover the expenses incurred whilst you are off work, or even to seek treatment outside of the NHS. There are an estimated 2.5 million people in the United Kingdom who have had cancer diagnosed, this has increased by almost half a million in the past 5 years.Worryingly 1 in 4 people face long term disability and poor health after treatment for the cancers, having this sort of plan in place can give you various options such as paying for treatment, making changes to your home, paying for living expenses or even a holiday to help recover.