Life can change in a split second.
One minute you can be cooking Sunday lunch for six people, the next minute you can find yourself confused, seriously injured and laying on the bathroom floor.
Last week, my children didn't get to enjoy Christmas lunch with crackers and paper crowns at school.
Instead the three of us were struck down by a nasty sickness bug that is currently doing the rounds.
This sickness bug is deeply unpleasant but it can't kill you – that is unless you have an issue with your blood pressure when unwell and almost break your neck by collapsing multiple times in your bathroom.
Yes – that was my fate last Monday night. To collapse not once, but a grand total of at least four times.
In case you still fear this is a particularly fatal sickness bug, the collapsing was the result of a combination of me running to the bathroom and my blood pressure being appallingly low when I am under the weather.
The first collapse wasn’t too bad as I was sat on the floor, but two of the subsequent times saw me smash my face (and glasses) into the bathroom sink and then later fall forward into the bath, hitting the top of my head.
My wonderful family, friends, the medical team who dealt with me at Croydon University Hospital plus my team at FTAdviser and Financial Adviser have been very supportive as I sat in hospital strapped to monitors.
But what I want my bout of head banging to remind you of is the fact you can’t prevent accidents from happening so every single one of your clients with financial dependants should have a protection policy.
While I couldn't have known how dangerously low my blood pressure was when I leapt out of bed on this occasion, what I did know is I have a protection policy.
While my wonderful loved ones would have emotionally supported my children if my head had hit the sink at just a slightly different angle, it is my protection policy that would have made sure they kept the roof over their heads.
Anyone with loved ones should want to have a policy that means if the worst should happen to them their family wouldn’t be financially destroyed by it.
My children may now have a mother whose face and head is badly bashed but I wish all children this Christmas have parents who should the worst happen have a policy in place that means they won’t suffer financially.
Protection policies, if secured at an early enough age (thanks for telling me that at the age of 23 Kevin Carr) cost far less per month than a mobile phone payment or your five costly coffees per week.
