HI,
I wonder if your psma was at Liverpool. I'm being treated at Preston and they said they'd send me there if it got to 0.4 which I thought was too high, but that's another story.
When I had my op I had a holiday to Australia booked and I cancelled payments that became due before I knew the operation date, or asked if they'd allow the booking to be deferred. The airline was the best as they said they'd allow postponement up to 24hrs before flight. It ended up that I went as planned 8 weeks after my op.
I think your RT will be at Preston. My psa is stable at a detectable level so I still have regular psa tests 7yrs after the op. They told me over a year ago if my psa reaches 0.2 I'd be referred to Oncology and would expect an appointment in 2-3 weeks which may or may not result in scans and hormones before RT. I'd think that with hormones they could put off RT for a long time and sometimes they put people on hold by using hormones.
I think I'd be wanting to get started if hormones were needed in case there are reactions and you can then know about them and take whatever's needed. It seems to me that you have a good case to ask for an early referral especially if you make your case about the holiday.
I didn't know about the cancer when I took out the insurance so they didn't ask for any extra as far as i can recall. I've been on holiday since and excluded existing medical conditions although they said for the cancer if I wasn't being treated they would cover. Going to the USA is always a difficult one as their health costs are high, my insurance is always Worldwide excluding USA.
Preston and Blackpool have Macmillan Nurses so I assume you have a named nurse to pursue. I try not to bother them but if I feel a need I don't hesitate to ask. They've always tried to help. The Macmillan Nurses at Preston cover both surgery and oncology and can offer advice on both, I'm not sure if Blackpool's do that.
All the best Peter
p.s. I've just seen what Lyn has just written and yes there is a risk in excluding conditions. If you've paid just the deposit you could perhaps hold off spending on insurance and lose the deposit if the insurance is a lot more. Then pay for the insurance just before you need to pay the full price. You might have met the Oncologist by then. On insurance it's a risk not being insured no doubt and it needs thinking about.