Insurance for good

By Vanessa Chance

Like many who found themselves working in insurance, it wasn’t the career I planned when leaving school, but I somehow found myself here and now couldn’t imagine being in any other sector. It is an industry with a few reputational challenges but tomorrow it will shine on the annual Insurance Day of Giving.

Three years ago, the industry came together to help fight dementia with the Insurance United Against Dementia (IUAD) campaign in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society. It started the Insurance Day of Giving as a day to both raise awareness about dementia and raise much-needed funds for research into the disease.

Tomorrow, many of the big insurance names including Aviva, Willis Towers Watson, Crawford, Sedgwick, RSA and others will be running fundraising and awareness-raising activities throughout the day. Zurich Community Trust (ZCT), Zurich’s charitable arm in the UK, has generously offered to match pound for pound the first £25,000 raised on the day by firms and individuals across the industry.

With the country going into a second lockdown and many still working remotely from March, we have had to be more creative this year to make the day work. There are Zoom baking classes, quizzes, industry-wide Dementia Friends sessions and many more activities all being organised across the country to raise money.

All of us on the IUAD board took part in a step challenge where we walked 10,000 steps a day for the whole of September and many have continued this right up until today. I have to say this initiative was a real hit with my energetic Labrador puppy! Personally, I found it hard to ask people for donations at this time, which is a challenge that so many charities are having, but I have been overwhelmed again by the generous support of my friends and colleagues.

The sad fact is that this pandemic has had a devastating impact on people with dementia their families. People with dementia have accounted for one quarter of all Covid deaths and those who survived lockdown are now battling the trauma of months spent alone or separated from loved ones, the accelerated onset of symptoms and a loss of independence. This is why it is more important now than ever to come together for people with dementia.

It is not too late to sign up for the Insurance Day of Giving and every contribution makes a real difference If you are interested in becoming a Dementia Friend, you can join the industry session on the day, hosted by Sedgwick, by registering here: https://marketing.sedgwick.com/acton/form/4952/02f0:d-0002/0/-/-/-/-/index.htm .

If you’d like to pledge your personal support, you can do so through the Insurance Day of Giving JustGiving page: https://justgiving.com/campaign/IUADDAY20

It is a challenging time for so many right now and I am so proud to see the insurance sector coming together to keep up the fight against dementia.