Talking to your clients about breast cancer
Breast cancer can happen at any time, but the UK’s annual awareness month is a chance for advisers and their clients to reflect, share experiences and talk about the importance of protection.
If you notice a lot of the colour pink around at the moment, that’s probably because October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Run by a collective of UK breast cancer charities, the event has long been synonymous with the wearing of pink ribbons.
This year’s theme is ‘My Why’, and people are encouraged to share their reason for participating in Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Often, this could be something very personal, such as a family history of the disease.
For advisers, October could be a good time to discuss breast cancer and highlight the benefits of critical illness cover should your client or their partner be diagnosed.
HSBC Life UK’s Senior Business Development Manager, Lisa Taylor, was 47 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent a major operation that required four months off work to recover and continues to require exercise and physio seven years later. Lisa had been planning to review her critical illness cover after a completion of a remortgage but unfortunately was diagnosed following an early mammogram shortly after her initial appointment. She now encourages advisers to use her story as an example.
“Be gently persistent with clients if they’re delaying the conversation or decision, give them the space and time to have what is, for most, an uncomfortable conversation.” she says. “They’ll thank you later if they need to claim – a sum of money can ease the financial pressure and give the gift of choice at a very challenging time. For example, I might have been able to take longer off work, knowing that my mortgage payments were taken care of, or taken my family away to thank them for their support or maybe have chosen to adjust my future working hours or career plans.”
Key themes you could discuss with your clients this October:
1. Breast cancer survival rates are improving
The good news is that, along with several other cancers, breast cancer survival rates in the UK are improving1.76.6% of people survive 10 years or more and, for stage 1 breast cancer, 96% of people survive 10 years or more2.
It’s thought that the significant improvement in outcomes is due to a combination of:
- effective screening programmes
- improved awareness of symptoms, and
- innovations in treatment.
When talking to your clients about breast cancer, therefore, you might want to signpost them to the NHS symptom checker and remind them to attend screening appointments. Anyone with a family history of breast cancer or previous experience of the disease may be offered additional screening.
It could be a good idea to have protection discussions with your client before they embark on screening. This gives them the opportunity to consider their protection needs first.
2. There is still an element of a ‘postcode lottery’
Despite an increase in breast cancer survival rates, there are still diagnosis and treatment disparities for cancer generally across the UK.
Areas of concern include rural, coastal areas and socially deprived areas. Yorkshire Cancer Research reported that some people in Yorkshire travel for over an hour for cancer treatment3. And Newcastle University reported that people in rural areas are 5% less likely to survive cancer than people living in urban areas4.
The British Medical Association (BMA) recently reported that there is a backlog of cancer cases with many targets not being met nationally5.
Cancer targets are being missed for the number of patients, including:
- being told whether they have cancer or not within 28 days
- receiving their first treatment within a month of a decision to treat
- receiving their first treatment within two months of an urgent referral.
Although not breast cancer specific, BMA figures showed that in June 2025 there were over six million patients waiting for NHS treatment5. For this, and other reasons, the Independent Healthcare Providers’ Network reports that more people in the UK are going or considering going private6.
They also noted that people in skilled manual occupations and unskilled manual occupations reported being more open to using private healthcare than they were in 20237. This is something for advisers to be aware of when meeting with prospective clients with manual occupations, for example the self-employed.
3. Breast cancer also affects men
Every year in the UK, there are around 390 men diagnosed with breast cancer, according to Cancer Research UK8. This compares with around 56,400 women diagnosed each year. According to MacMillian Cancer Support, most breast cancers in men are invasive, which means the cancer cells have spread into surrounding breast tissue9.
Macmillan Cancer Support has created an engaging and emotive video on male and female breast cancer which you can share with clients. It includes thoughts on sharing your diagnosis with loved ones and finding a support network.
4. HSBC Life can support your clients through their breast cancer journey
1 in 7 people are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in the UK10 and the highest diagnosis of lesser advanced breast cancer is in the 50-54 age group11. If your client is one of those diagnosed, HSBC Life could support them. We provide our customers with support throughout the journey, from early concerns to diagnosis and critical illness payout. Clients with concerns can get a GP consultation seven days a week through Online Health Services12.
Should a customer be diagnosed with breast cancer, the award-winning13 HSBC Life claims team are at the end of the phone. Critical illness claims are handled empathetically, and with immediate payouts if your client is placed on an NHS waiting list for surgery for one of the covered conditions14. We know that in England 86.4% of patients received surgery within 12 months of diagnosis so this policy feature could be very useful for some of your clients15. Everyday costs can ramp up during a cancer journey, so we do what we can to make things easier, and we know from CI Expert’s Critical Thinking Report (2024) that people choose to spend their payouts on a range of things – from private medical treatment to paying off debts16.
A breast cancer diagnosis can be a challenging time both for a client as well as their partner and dependents, if they have them. With HSBC Life, there are up to eight mental health consultations available per year through our Online Health Services. These can be shared with a partner or dependent. And access to our Online Health Services, including physiotherapy which can be important after breast surgery, continues along with the critical illness policy in cases of non-invasive breast cancer.
HSBC Life customer Sam shares her positive experience of claiming after a grade 2 breast cancer diagnosis in this short video. You may want to share the video with prospective clients considering the benefits of critical illness cover.
Sharing your ‘why’
We hope you’ve taken some useful facts and conversation starters for this Breast Cancer Awareness Month. You might want to wear a splash of pink on Friday 24th October (Wear It Pink Day) and ‘Share Your Why’ with your clients, if you’re comfortable to do so.
References:
1 https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2025/slowdown-progress-cancer-survival-england-and-wales
2 https://crukcancerintelligence.shinyapps.io/EarlyDiagnosis/
3 https://www.yorkshirecancerresearch.org.uk/
4 https://from.ncl.ac.uk/why-are-rural-communities-less-likely-to-survive-cancer
6 https://www.ihpn.org.uk/going-private-2025-introduction/
7 https://www.ihpn.org.uk/going-private-2025-the-publics-appetite-for-private-healthcare/
8 https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/breast-cancer/types/male-breast-cancer
9 https://www.macmillan.org.uk/cancer-information-and-support/breast-cancer/breast-cancer-in-men
12 HSBC Life Online Health Services do not form part of your client’s insurance policy and HSBC Life have the right to change or remove these additional health services at any time. Such a decision will not affect your client’s insurance cover with HSBC Life in any way.
13 COVER Customer Care Awards 2025 https://www.life.hsbc.co.uk/advisers/protection-advisers/why-hsbc/
14 For full terms and conditions, including a list of exclusions please refer to the policy booklet.
16 https://ciexpert.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CIExpert-Critical-Thinking-Report-2024.pdf