Travel and old doctors letter

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Harold98

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Type 1
Hi I'm due to travel abroad in 2 weeks. Obviously going to need a doctors letter to inform the airline I must take all my medication on board with me. I do have an old one with me when I last went abroad in 2017.... my question is would I have to get an updated one? Or will the old one be enough? The old letter has everything it needs on it.

Thanks!
 
Harold98 said:
The old letter has everything it needs on it.
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Should be fine, presuming you're type 1 (it's still incurable, after all). I'm still carrying one from years ago. If you've changed doctors you might want a new letter, I guess?
 
Harold98 said:
Hi I'm due to travel abroad in 2 weeks. Obviously going to need a doctors letter to inform the airline I must take all my medication on board with me. I do have an old one with me when I last went abroad in 2017.... my question is would I have to get an updated one? Or will the old one be enough? The old letter has everything it needs on it.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I always use my old one, which doesn’t refer to any specific dates of travel, the trouble is, I've never been asked to show it, so can’t say if they’re be a problem! I'll tag one of our members @Bloden , who I know has been asked to produce hers on several occasions (she must have a guilty face) who may be able to tell you how old her letter is!
 
I don’t even know where my old one is any more 😱

But I can’t say I’ve ever been asked for it on any international flights I’ve made over the past decade or more.

These days I tend to assume that being connected to an insulin pump is probably evidence enough!
 
I’ve just dug mine out as going away in two weeks. Dated 2018 and very tatty. I’m just taking it with me. I’m not paying another £15!
 
I have not been asked for my letter for some time and it is another tatty undated one.
I still carry it with me whenever I fly - not just when I travel outside the UK. It lives with my passport. It came to Dublin with me last week and Edinburgh earlier in the year.

In nearly 20 years and well over 100 flights, I have been asked for it twice. I prefer to have an old letter than no letter but see no reason to get it renewed.

My letter was renewed when I got a pump as it is necessary to clearly state that my pump cannot be x-rayed. Whilst I have not showed it, I have referred to it when airport security tried to encourage me to take the risk.
 
Bruce Stephens said:
Just checked mine. (I am, coincidentally, just returning from holiday.) It's dated 2007.
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I think if I ever found mine it would have been dated about 1994 - that was the first flight I took (all the way to Northern Ireland for a college-friend’s wedding!)
 
you could take a repeat prescription paper if you want some extra evidence?
 
I’ve been abroad twice this year and it was asked for and well looked at coming back from Madeira. They never looked at it coming back from Croatia.
 
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