“As you get older, things are going to start going wrong with your health. But having something like Equipsme up your sleeve means you’ve got a head start on putting it right again.”
Simon Bowler, 54, from Milton Keynes, was experiencing some bowel issues - and admits he was in denial for far too long. When his partner found out, she insisted he get things checked over. Having no luck with his NHS GP, Simon turned to Equipsme.
“I’ll be honest,” says Simon, “this was not my finest hour. I’m afraid I’m a typical bloke, and I don’t talk about my health, or my feelings - or anything like that. I certainly don’t talk about my bowels! I’d been experiencing discomfort for a while, and then I started noticing blood in my poo. But being a big rough, tough man I just put my head in the sand and pretended it wasn’t happening - while also secretly thinking ‘your number’s up, mate.’
“It was my partner who finally noticed something was wrong when I didn’t flush the toilet properly. She gave me a proper telling off - and insisted I go straight to the doctor.
“Now I haven’t been to see my GP since before Covid, so I had no idea how bad it had gotten. Asking to see a doctor in person was like asking for a bar of gold or something. I was begrudgingly given a telephone appointment, but ended up missing the first call because it came through in the middle of a meeting. The receptionist was not happy! And then when I did finally talk to a doctor they were pretty unhelpful, too.
“I told my partner I was giving up, and she told me I was a silly, silly man, and then reminded me I had private medical insurance through work.”
Workplace benefits
Simon works as a software analyst for Weatherby’s Banking Group at their offices in Wellingborough. They’d introduced Equipsme as part of a comprehensive package of wider benefits and health and wellbeing resources.
He continues: “Coming to use Equipsme for the first time I found the website was so clear and easy to use. And they didn’t need my grandmother’s inside leg measurement to make a GP appointment! In fact I got one the next day and had a very sensible conversation on the phone with a very nice doctor. She didn’t talk down to me, and she didn’t rush me through on a conveyor belt. At the end she said it was clear I needed a referral and set the ball rolling.
“Because I’ve got diagnosis and treatment on my plan I found myself in front of a gastroenterologist at a local AXA Health hospital not long afterwards. He said he didn’t think I was dying, which was a relief, but that I needed further tests to find out what was going on. So I was booked in for a colonoscopy.
Colonoscopy
“Honestly, when it came time to go in I was pretty petrified, because I’ve not had anything like that done before. But it needed doing, and you know what? It was absolutely fine.
“The hospital was clean and bright, and I got treated like royalty. I was taken in, talked through what was going to happen, got the sedation and got wheeled intothe theatre. I was so relaxed I watched the whole thing on the telly as they were doing it! So I knew straight away they didn’t find the big C - but they did find some hefty haemorrhoids and some polyps, which they were able to remove while they were in there.
“After that I went back to the consultant, who gave me some medicine and some good advice. My line manager at work was brilliant about it all, and let me work at home for a bit near my own toilet, until everything had settled back down and started to improve.
“I feel very lucky that I had Equipsme as a safety-net to get me sorted out really quickly. From that first GP appointment to the last consultant appointment took less than two months, and I’ve come out with a clean bill of health.
“I’ve since spoken to so many people waiting much, much longer to get to this point - being fobbed off by their GP, told to cut out gluten or take IBS pills, waiting for referrals to come through and getting appointments cancelled at the last minute. I had none of that nonsense.”
Spreading the word
Simon is now thoroughly reformed from being a health-hesitator, and is spreading the word about bowel health. He says: “I used to be that person that would never go for a poo at work. Now I’m not embarrassed about it anymore, and I’m talking poo to anyone who’ll listen! Every single person on this planet does it. But not talking about it means too many are ignoring symptoms like mine for too long - and they’re not catching bowel cancer early enough.
“Now I was very lucky, but I was also very stupid. Being quiet about my bowels could have been a lot more serious. So if you’ve got back-end symptoms you really must get them checked out, and if my experience helps someone decide to do that I’ll be very happy.
“As you get older, things are going to start going wrong with your health. It’s inevitable. But having something like Equipsme up your sleeve means you’ve got a head start on putting it right again. You don’t know what’s going to happen round the corner, so it’s peace of mind for the future.
Positive experience
“My experience with Equipsme has been nothing but positive, and I’m very grateful that Weatherby’s Bank are such a good employer - who genuinely care enough about staff to put something like this in place for us. You get fantastic cover, and you can even choose to add to it if you want to. Equipsme let you pay-in yourself to upgrade and put family members on for very little extra.
“Spending about what I’d spend on fast-food take-out every month seems like very good value to me! In fact I’ve done the maths and compared it to what my partner gets from her company, and I can tell you their PMI isn’t a patch on mine. So next time hers renews we’ll consider opting out of that plan and putting her on Equipsme with me.
“I’m such a fan I’ve been recommending it left, right and centre, and encouraging colleagues to recognise what they’ve got. It’s a fantastic service, and I for one am very grateful it came through for me when I needed it.”
