BBC Radio 4's Inside Money lets listeners explore the financial issues that matter to them.

Each week, presenter Lesley Curwen will offer her low-down on making the programme.

I was rather surprised by our listener Dean Turrell's appearance.

He looked hale and hearty, sitting on a sofa dressed in loose gym gear; and yet he was telling me a story about a sudden, devastating blow to his health.

As I sat in his neat home in Westhoughton, near Bolton, armed with a microphone and a small digital tape recorder, Dean vividly recounted the awful moments in 2004 when he blacked out, coughed up blood and felt squeezing pains in his arm.

Later, lying in his hospital bed, one of the nurses caring for him asked his wife Vicky whether he was normally so grey.

Dean was deeply upset that his honesty had been called into question

He told me at one point Vicky thought he was going to die.

In between the dramatic details, we kept a wary ear out for the gruff barks of Dean's Alsatian, Buck, who had been shut outside.

His master had suffered a heart attack at the age of forty, but that wasn't all; he'd had a big financial setback as well as a medical crisis.

Dean, like millions of us, had taken out critical illness insurance, expecting that if and when he was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness it would give him a lump sum big enough to pay off his mortgage.

In fact Dean and Vicky had two critical illness policies, taken out alongside mortgages on two separate properties.

The smaller policy, taken out with HSBC paid out.

The larger policy taken out with Norwich Union did not.

The insurance company argued Dean had failed to disclose a minor eye condition when he filled out the application forms.

Even though there was no medical link to his heart attack, Norwich Union said it considered the policy invalid and therefore it refused to pay out.

Dean was deeply upset that his honesty had been called into question.

After his experience, Dean is keen to put some tough questions to the insurance industry

Unable to work, and facing an uncertain future, he decided to fight to clear his name and get the payout to which he believed he was entitled.

That battle would take three years.

Over the years, I've found that listeners like Dean who generously agree to take part in 'Inside Money' are often indignant about their treatment at the hands of insurers, banks or government agencies.

And that what makes them keen to find out what's being done in a wider sense to stop the same thing happening to other people.

After years of mulling over the details of his own case, Dean had pretty strong views about critical illness insurance.

He was really looking forward to putting some tough questions to both Norwich Union and the insurance industry as a whole.

It was clear they would face an uphill struggle to persuade him the situation was improving.

Would he be convinced?

BBC Radio 4's Inside Money: On the Critical List was broadcast on Saturday 28 July at 1204 BST and repeated on Monday 30 July at 1502 BST.

Lesley's Low-downs from other programmes this series