Raquel Gannaban during our sit-down interview
Living a single life does not equate you to being or feeling alone. It is a choice that a lot of Filipinos, millennials and Gen Z mostly, choose to live in this economy as they always say online.
They focus on their goals, work hard, and contribute to their community instead. A lot of them are achievers and are trying to live the best life they could for themselves and for their family. And that is the chosen path that Raquel Gannaban lives by.
At 42, Raquel has accomplished quite a lot in her career as a quality manager and a certified lead auditor. On top of her many duties and responsibilities at work, she and her team ensure that their organization is compliant to every regulatory and statutory requirement mandated by law and by their internal policies.
When not managing teams about compliances, she manages her household where she's the eldest of four siblings. Raquel is also active in the activities of the church ministry she's part of.
In a way, she kind of already sorted out and knew what to do in her life. She was able to save and set for her retirement.
But life is unpredictable. It brings sudden changes, surprising turns, and throws us challenges and opportunities when we least expect them.
When Raquel thought that she was set for life, she suffered a stroke last February 2026.
''I remember waking up at eight in the morning with severe headache.'' Raquel didn't mind the headache and still went on with her daily routine to go to work.
On her way, she communicated with her team, friends, and ministry as she usually does through chat and text. But they noticed and pointed out to her that the messages she's sending weren't typed in her normal and usual way. She shrugged it off and joked that her thumb was just too big to type on her phone, all the while she's dealing with throbbing head pain and nausea.
''I know that something was wrong, I was already dragging my left foot, but I still went to work that day.'' Typical Raquel, as she admits to News5 of her being a workaholic.
As the physical signs and symptoms of stroke manifested on Raquel one after another, she still somehow managed to power up her computer and tried to work. In her mind, she has a ton to do for the day, but her body says otherwise.
''I was leaning to my right, I lost mobility on the left side of my body, my speech was already slurred... My colleagues forced me out of my chair, and brought me to a hospital,'' where they were told that her blood pressure reached as high as one hundred sixty over a hundred to two hundred over one hundred twenty.
A scary moment indeed for anyone, but for Raquel, she soldiered on and kept her courage and consciousness during the ordeal. She even filled out the hospital forms herself with her able right hand, and called her family and her friend Cheska, who apparently is also her financial advisor.
Roughly four months prior to her health scare, Raquel signed a policy with Pru Life UK last October 2025 through her friend Cheska.
''Actually, at first, I'm hesitant, eh,'' she recalls.
''I already have my HMO, I'm secured with my SSS for retirement, and then I have PhilHeath, and then with the company I'm in right now, I'm sure that they will assist me just in case anything would happen to me.''
''At that time, I didn't think I needed to get a policy with Pru Life UK,'' she confessed.
But she got it anyway, with the trust she had with her friend who convinced her to sign up, and thank God she did, she quipped.
Raquel was able to receive an insurance claim after only a few months of funding.
Timing indeed is everything, she tells News5. And life is kind to her, she was insured a few months before she was rushed to the E.R. for a life-threatening emergency.
''If I haven't agreed and signed with the Pru Life UK policy last October 2025... I wouldn't be able to finance my medication and my therapy.''
Along with her recovery, Raquel considers Cheska, as well as her team from Pru Life UK a blessing not just to her life, but for the lives of their other clients.
''Her desire to educate us financially really lead us to make better choices in life.''
With teary eyes, Raquel expressed her gratitude to her friend and agent, ''one of the best things in my life is meeting Cheska.''
''Puwede namang hindi na niya ako inalok eh, 'di ba, but the concern is there, that's also one of the reasons she's my agent. You can feel the concern, more than the monetary thing that she gets from here, you can feel the concern she has for her clients.''
With Cheska and her policy by her side, Raquel told News5 that she didn't feel that she went through this experience alone.
''Having a stroke isn't a one-time treatment, it requires a period of treatments (and therapy). So not having to worry about the financial stress of being sick really contributed the ease of my recovery from stroke.''
Roughly three months from the day Raquel had a stroke, she happily shares that she's well on her way to recovery. She gained back her mobility and speech, and she's now a financial advisor, like her friend Cheska, in Pru Life UK.
''My experience strengthened my confidence with them,'' for Raquel, she is not just some agent promising the benefits of what would happen if you get a policy with them, but someone who genuinely knows what she's talking about, not just a pitch, but someone who actually lived to tell the story on how she claimed and utilize the benefits of the policy herself based from her experience.
As published on News5 Online.
