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Male Cancer Awareness Month: It's not just your life - so you'd better insure it

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This month handsome, young, male celebrities are getting their kit off but dont think its just cheap thrills for the ladies. Its all in the best possible taste and they are baring all to raise awareness for the 11th Male Cancer Awareness Month, being run throughout June by cancer research organisation Everyman.

Just in case you wanted to know, the naked chaps including sportsmen Danny Cipriani and David James are appearing in Cosmopolitan magazine centre spread.

Life-altering conditions such as cancer can affect any of us at any time but the right kind of life insurance and / or critical illness insurance can help make the financial side of life easier for you and your dependents. In particular, the Male Cancer Awareness Month campaign aims to raise awareness of prostate and testicular cancer.

Each year around 35,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and around 10,000 die. Testicular cancer, however, is much rarer causing 2,000 cases a year and 70 deaths.

How would your family live without you? While a cancer diagnosis is devastating and treatments be can gruelling, everyday life still goes on and the bills have to be paid. As we are only mere mortals, it also makes you think about how your family would cope financially if you weren't around anymore. No matter what sex you are, if you have dependents you should have a life protection policy in place.

Read Moneyextra's exclusive Guide toLife Assurance & Critical Illness Insurance

It has been estimated by the life industry that we are £2.3 trillion under-protected when it comes to life and family income protection cover, which must mean that millions of families do not have adequate protection should tragedy strike.

There are a number of good things about life assurance. First, the cost of premiums has been falling because we are living for longer meaning insurers don't pay out as often. For example, level term cover for £100,000 for a 35-year old women, non-smoker over 20 years only costs between £6.20 and £7.50 a month.

Despite the sometimes off-putting jargon - level term asurrance, decreasing term assurance, whole of life - life cover is not as complicated as you might think. The internet has also made it easier to shop around and get life insurance quotes.

How much cover do you need?

Before you start gathering quotes, you need to work out what sort of cover you will need for your dependents. You should also find out if your employer provides you with any kind of life cover. Would it be best for your dependents to have a one off lump sum to repay the mortgage, a series of lump sums, an income or a mixture of both? How much cover you need depends on your age, how much debt you have and whether you have children.

Many of us fail to work out accurately how much our family would need if we were no longer around, which could result in terrible hardship. So it is important to get your sums right. Take all your debts, existing savings and add in how much annual income it would take to pay all the household bills to get to the lump sum required. An independent financial adviser can help you plan properly.

Statistically you have a greater chance of suffering a serious illness before retirement than dying. Protect yourself and your loved ones with critical illness insurance.

10 June 2008 © Moneyextra.com

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Our senior editor Robin Amlôt recommends you should consider taking independent financial advice before acting on any article. Please contact us for help with your individual circumstances if any assistance is required.