I'M GETTING PENALISED FOR GETTING CANCER TOO LATE...

INSURANCE COMPANY REFUSES TO PAY OUT ON TERMINALLY ILL GRANDAD'S LIFE POLICY BECAUSE HE DOESN'T HAVE LONG ENOUGH LEFT ON HIS PLAN

- HELENA VESTY

A GRANDAD with terminal cancer who has been paying life insurance premiums for 15 years has been told he can't cash out on his policy.

Shaun Pinkney, 53, is unable make a claim because he doesn't have long enough left on his plan, Aviva bosses say.

The small print, they say, states someone with a terminal illness can only make a claim if they have 18 months or more left on their policy. Shaun - a dad-of-four and grandad-of-six from Salford - also can't renew because of his diagnosis.

"So, if I'd got terminal cancer six months earlier than when I was diagnosed, they would have paid out?," he said. "It's absolutely ridiculous." Shaun was diagnosed with multiple myeloma a type of bone marrow cancer - in April last year. A year later, he was reminded of his life insurance policy in a letter from Aviva, which urged him to renew the plan he'd been paying into for 15 years.

Hoping to have 'one last holiday' with his family, he decided to call to renew his wife's policy and cash out his own.