About Peter Mitchell

My Story

I am passionate about insurance. If I had not taken my own advice my family and I would have been in a precarious position financially. In 2003 I was diagnosed with CML, Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia following a regular visit to the Blood Bank to donate blood. That was very fortunate as it was detected sooner rather than later and my second piece of good luck was that I emailed the then head of the Leukaemia Foundation to complain that a new miracle drug was not yet on the Government Subsidised Approved Product List (APL). This lead to me to being part a drug trial (100 Australia wide)for Glivec and under one of Australia’s best oncologists, John Seymour at Peter Mac in Melbourne. That saved my life, without it I would in normal circumstances have been dead within two or three years. The cost of my medication without the trial or APL would have been over $72,000.00 a year. Unaffordable except for the very rich.

I had Trauma insurance and made a claim which was paid very promptly. This enabled me to pay off a large amount of personal debt, educate our children with our daughter off to University (and another car for her) in Geelong and our son was still at secondary school and to fund much of our lifestyle during the first few years. I was still able to work so my income protection wasn’t needed although income was greatly reduced.

I always told my clients before my illness that if they were insured and something untoward like this happened then the money would allow them to focus on getting back to good health as their money worries would be met. It works, no public appeal, less stress on our family and marriage, no selling the house or other assets or borrowing from family or the bank. My daughter called the payout ‘Leukaemia Lotto” and it was. I am in good health as the drug has been a huge success worldwide. My wife and I had made a great decision to protect ourselves and our family. Thank goodness we did.

Footnote – My Daughter and her Partner prior to buying their first house made sure that they had full insurance cover before they committed to the purchase.

What my Clients say

My wife Helen and I operate the family plumbing business, Moroney’s Plumbing based in Rochester Victoria servicing the local town and surrounding community. In August 2007 I blacked out, no reason found and fell from a ladder from about two metres from the ground. A simple accident and what I consider a fairly innocuous fall to the ground but as I was out before impact I could not protect myself and landed on my left side. The result was a multiple broken ribs, collarbone punctured lung and other injuries. I was hospitalized for 5 weeks and unable to work for a considerable time with Helen and I spending many days getting medical treatment, having appointments with specialists, having tests etc.

I am still unable to work except for a couple of hours per day on administrative duties and suffer ongoing pain due to four ribs still not joined. It has been a long and frustrating period of time for my family, myself and our business. Fortunately I had taken Peter’s advice and taken out an income protection policy and business overheads insurance. Without the income protection insurance providing an ongoing income stream we would have been in a financially difficult situation and may have been forced to close our family business which we established in 1982 and put further pressure on us. But we did and the business is still operating. We recommend that you talk to Peter today about ensuring your future. As an insurance ad says, Income Protection goes to work when you can’t.

Geoff Moroney
Moroney’s Plumbing Rochester