Cheryl Tustain, 39, had an operation for thyroid cancer in 1998. Nine years later she found it virtually impossible to buy travel insurance for a long weekend in New York.

“I called company after company, all the big names. Of the dozen or so I called, some refused to insure me outright. The rest gave me such ridiculously high quotes I couldn’t afford it,” she said. The former air stewardess said that the phone calls followed a similar pattern, with sales staff going through all the details of the holiday and then asking if she had ever suffered from cancer right at the end of the call.

“A third said they couldn’t cover me. The others offered me premiums of about £200,” she said. She eventually got a quote of £50 from Esure, an internet-based company.

“I can understand insurers have to be cautious and things have to be costed, but after five years in the clear you are classed as being in remission so I shouldn’t still be paying the price of being ill,” she said.

Mrs Tustain, from Surrey, said she found the attitude of the companies all the more bizarre because she had worked as cabin staff at the time that she became ill, returning shortly after her surgery. Britannia Airways, her employer, had never raised insurance cover as an issue, she said.

Times Recommends

• The cello set to break hearts and records
• All aboard in 30 seconds, orders thrifty rail company
• Dentist to open at supermarket stores