Testimonials

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When Brian Walton of Westguard Management Services came to me in the late 90’s and enquired as to how my business was going and had I thought about how both myself and my wife and children would cope financially if ever something was to happen to either of us, it made me stop and think. No I really hadn’t.

At that stage I had been in business for 3 years and was struggling with the pressures of that, working 65 plus hours a week and never had time to consider those kinds of matters. Foolish, I know, but it had just never occurred to me.

Brian sat down with us both and analysed my needs both from a personal and business perspective. He went away and came back with a very comprehensive proposal that included a number of items that I initially felt were maybe unnecessary and over the top. My first thoughts were..

• that’s never going to happen to me,
• I don’t need this,
• What are the chances of that ever happening to me,

those kinds of thoughts ran through my mind.

Furthermore, we were highly committed financially too many facets in the business and I felt I really couldn’t afford the extra financial burden of this. Nevertheless, we proceeded with Brian’s recommendations which included Trauma insurance on both Shelley and myself.

Little did I know at the time but had I not gone ahead with these recommendations, the term “Financial Burden” would have raised it’s ugly head and bitten mine clean off.

On the 7th July 2006, arriving home from work, I was greeted by my wife Shelley who was visibly distressed. She proceeded to tell me that she had been for a number of tests that day and had been diagnosed with Metastatic Advanced Breast cancer with a 6cm tumour in her left breast. From that moment, life as we new it was about to change. After all the emotion of that announcement had settled after a few days and we had coordinated Shelly’s medical treatment, it occurred to me that it may be worth calling Brian to see if infact there were any aspects of the cover he had in place for us included Shelley’s condition. I was not sure as it’s something you tend to forget about.

The premiums were just an expense that was paid each month and you rarely ever think about the cover you may or may not have. Brian was confident that it may include some benefit and suggested he would get back to me as soon as possible. He rang me back within 24 hours to confirm to us both that there was a fairly sizable sum due to us under the terms of the policy and he would get the necessary paperwork underway to get the claim processed.

It’s hard to describe in words the feeling of utter relief I felt after the emotions of the previous few days, when he gave me that fantastic news. With a very busy business to run and 2 teenage children at home, the financial constraints with time away from the business and the cost of her medical expenses to come, I really wasn’t sure how we were going to cope.

The fact that we now didn’t have to worry about the financial implications of Shelley’s condition, I believe went a long way to ensuring that as a family we coped with the process of getting Shelly better. I am happy to say the treatment was very successful and she is well on her way to a full recovery. Still a few hoops to jump through but the future is bright.

For those of us who say ‘It will never happen to me” and “I don’t need this” and “I cant afford it”, let me tell you, you can’t afford not to and that is a fact.

- Alan W, Perth WA

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