A Maple Ridge man battling stage four cancer was denied a critical illness benefit through his life insurance policy because of a visit to the hospital two years prior to his diagnosis.
Known locally as Coach Toby, Toby Cleary was diagnosed in January 2022 with colon cancer, and even though the cancer has already progressed to the fourth stage, Cleary was given hope by doctors that he could beat the disease.
He went through six months of chemotherapy, one month of radiation, and liver resection surgery. But earlier in 2023, Cleary was told the cancer came back in his liver.
However, when he contacted Manulife to claim a critical illness benefit through his illness and life insurance package, he was denied. And, he was further informed by the insurance company that they were terminating his entire policy and would refund the premiums Cleary had paid over the past three years.
Both Cleary and his wife Danielle Raymond applied for insurance in September, 2019. Raymond purchased a life insurance policy only, but Cleary, who worked as an independent contractor at the time, and didn’t have extra benefits through a company, purchased a Synergy policy which was a combination of life insurance, disability insurance, and critical illness insurance.
They used a broker to help them decide on policies to purchase, explained Raymond.
Manulife claimed in its letter of rejection, after reviewing Cleary’s medical records over the past decade, that he had paid a visit to the emergency department at Ridge Meadows Hospital on Oct. 11, 2019, for rectal bleeding, which he didn’t disclose to them – despite signing a contract stating that he had not had any “illness, disease, disorder, injury, operation or treatment,” nor had he “consulted, been examined or treated by any healthcare professional or been advised to or have a medical appointment or consultation with a healthcare professional,” that had not yet taken place, nor had any “medical tests completed or been advised to have any medical tests that have not yet been completed.” There was no diagnosis, and the company said, he was referred for a colonoscopy – a referral, the couple claims they were unaware of because Cleary had hernia repair surgery around the same time and it was sent to that surgeon’s office where it sat uncompleted.
The information, said Manulife, should have been disclosed on the delivery receipt that they signed on Mar. 2, 2020. The company further stated that in view of the information, they never would have allowed Cleary’s policy to “settle”.
Cleary confirmed that he sought help at Ridge Meadows Hospital two years prior to his cancer diagnosis, after seeing blood in the toilet. However, the doctor who examined him told Cleary the bleeding was due to haemorrhoids, and assured Cleary that despite this one time bleeding, that he was fine and healthy, and there was no need to worry.
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So Cleary didn’t think to inform Manulife.
And, they have since been assured by Cleary’s oncologist that it is impossible the haemorrhoid is linked to his current cancer diagnosis.
“His GP [general practitioner] said the same thing,” said Raymond, noting that her husband’s first symptoms started happening in October, 2021.
Cleary thought they were doing everything right. They got married, Danielle was graduating from university with a Master’s degree, he was working closer to home, and then they had the security of having life insurance policies for each other.
“When I got sick I, as a husband felt reassured knowing Danielle would have something to rely on and that I had done the best I could do,” Cleary told The News. “When they canceled my policy, it was a huge kick to the gut that left me feeling desperate, especially with how weak I am,” he noted.
“I have a lot of guilt even though there was nothing I could do.”
The critical illness benefit was worth $25,000, money Cleary wanted to help pay for the clinical trials still available to him in the United States – for example, two available to him at Seattle’s Fred Hutch Cancer Centre, cost $97,000 USD and $57,000 USD – fees for Canadians that must be paid upfront. Other U.S. clinical trial options the couple are also considering have similar fees.
Now friends are trying to raise the money through a GoFundMe campaign.
According to the online fundraising page put together by Brendon Leong, Sonja Holgersen, and Jasmin Schuss, although Cleary appealed the company’s decision and provided supporting medical documents, Manulife will not reinstate his policy.
“The safety net Toby had created for himself has been ripped away,” wrote the trio online, documenting Cleary’s struggles with health care including: a wait of almost two months to see an oncologist; having chemotherapy and radiation treatments cancelled multiple times; walking around with a painful and potentially life-threatening bowel perforation that went undetected for months until it became an emergency; and waiting for almost three hours in a busy emergency room, holding together a five-inch-long section of his abdomen after his surgical wound suddenly split open with no pain control.
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“Imagine that, long before you were going through these horrors, you had purchased life insurance and critical illness insurance,” read the online plea for help.
“Now imagine being in the desperate place where you must access the critical illness insurance you hoped you’d never need, but instead of paying your claim, your insurance provider spends six months looking for a way to terminate your entire policy,” it read.
An update written by Cleary’s wife Danielle Raymond on Thursday, Dec. 28, acknowledged the barriers they have faced through this entire struggle.
“We have done everything right and ‘properly’ yet our tenacity, hope, and stamina have been drained by having to fight for every little thing,” wrote Raymond. “Manulife’s termination of the policy we took out long before Toby had cancer was a kick in the face, and it has left us scrambling and asking for donations to try to recover what was taken away from us,” she continued, noting how the constant fight to access benefits has made the experience even more difficult and traumatizing that is already was.
As of the afternoon on Friday, Dec. 29, $71,312 had been raised of a $110,000 goal.
A second fundraiser, also organized by Brendon Leong has raised $48,662 of a $50,000 goal.
To donate go to: gofund.me/8ed90582.
• The News has reached out by phone and email and have yet to receive a response from Manulife by publication deadline
