Layla's Story

I'm Layla. I'm married to Karim and we have a six-year-old daughter. I have a fairly hectic lifestyle as both my husband and I work, and his hours are particularly long as he works for an IT firm. We've recently decided to take out health insurance, even though we're both perfectly fit at the moment. It's mainly because my colleague was recently diagnosed with cancer which has been very stressful for her and her family. To make matters worse, they didn't have any insurance, so she ended up leaving her job and going back to her family in the United States for treatment taking the kids with her. She no longer earns and her husband had to stay back in Beirut to make sure that one of them has an income to pay for the travel costs, medical bills and the day-to-day expenses of having the family live thousands of miles apart.It's a terribly stressful time for all of them and it really made me worry about what would happen to us if I was in that situation."