Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon Calder.

It is now Thursday the 4th of January.

And guess what?

The holiday industry is thoroughly enjoying the fact that New Year and Christmas are over

and therefore many people are deciding I'd really like to buy a holiday.

And that's great. We all want something to look forward to. But may I bring you a cautionary tale

which tells you why you need to be really careful about insurance? This is a sad tale involving a family from Sussex

who were landed with a £100,000 medical bill. Basically, the story here is that the Katalinich

family had gone on holiday to Africa.

Well, how lovely.

Kachya Kalinich, who's now 18, had decided to stay on.

And so her father thought,

understandably he was doing the right thing. He went online, bought from a mainstream British travel insurer,

a policy which he thought would cover her for medical costs and everything else.

Well, very, very sadly, Kachia suffered a brain hemorrhage while in South Africa.

Fortunately, she was given the life-saving treatment that she needed, but it came with a hundred thousand pound bill.

When the family presented the insurance documents to the hospital and the hospital checked with the insurer,

the insurer said, well, this policy isn't valid.

The traveller did not do what many standard policies require

you to do, which is simply to begin and end your trip in the UK. The family said, well,

originally she was in the UK, but actually the rules state that your journey for which you're

being insured starts in the UK,

...