cargosales,
My deepest condolences and sympathies go out to you in these difficult times.
You could see if you can play the oldest trick in the book, threaten to leave and get yourself put through to the "retentions" team.
Otherwise yes, try an early call (they may just be operating an overflow system, in which case the early bird will indeed catch the worm) , or try going for the callcenter operator's manager, frequently escalations get put back to the UK (my experience elsewhere, not with Virgin).
Edit... a quick google yields 0800 052 0431 .... have you tried that ? Apparently a Liverpool call centre, so they sort of speak English there !