You shall go to the hol
First Minister tells Linzi she can enjoy final overseas trip with family despite new lockdown
NICOLA Sturgeon has told a dying mum she can go on a final family holiday to Tenerife after the Daily Record stepped in.
We told on our website yesterday how Linzi Page, who has terminal cancer, is due to fly to the Canaries next Thursday for a last trip abroad with her kids.
There is no ban on her flying to Tenerife but the 38-year-old feared lockdown travel rules starting today would prevent her going from her home in Fife to Edinburgh Airport.
In a heartbreaking email to Sturgeon yesterday, the mum-of-two pleaded for help, saying: “I have stage 4 bowel cancer, two young kids (ages four and seven) and have already outlived my life expectancy.
“We all live in Tier 3 areas and are reading today’s news saying it is now illegal to travel to the airport but not illegal to actually fly.”
She said: “Notwithstanding the personal element that I am devastated that this final holiday with my loved ones may be taken away from me and I may lose the opportunity to make lasting final memories, I cannot understand the decision.”
After the Record highlighted Linzi’s plight, the First Minister wrote to her to say she CAN make the trip to the airport.
Sturgeon also clarif ied that such cases are now exempt from the travel ban on the grounds of “compassionate travel”.
Linzi, her son Calan, seven, and four-year-old daughter Charlotte were overjoyed at the response.
Linzi said: “I am delighted. Our family are genuinely grateful that we can now go and make precious memories.”
The ban on travel between council areas comes into force today for people who live in areas at Levels 3 and 4.
Leaving these areas will be a breach of the law unless the trip is “essential”. But critics believe the ban is unworkable and throws up anomalies.
Although international travel is allowed, in many cases it will be unlawful for people to travel to an airport.
Linzi was diagnosed in 2018 and given
up to two years to live by doctors. In August, she revealed she is paying £1400 every three weeks for Avastin, a treatment unfunded on the NHS and which is keeping the tumours at bay.
In her plea to Sturgeon, Linzi said her family had paid to take Covid tests and that they stood to lose £6000 if the holiday did not go ahead.
After our story, Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard raised Linzi’s case at First Minister’s Questions.
Sturgeon replied: “I have written back to her today advising her that, under the regulations, anyone in a situation like hers can go on a final holiday.
“The travel restrictions come with a general exemption where people have what is termed in law a reasonable excuse.”
Leonard said: “It shouldn’t take a desperate email to the First Minister for a terminally ill mother to confirm she can go on holiday with her children.
“But I’m delighted for Linzi and her family that we were able to get such a clear commitment after this issue was raised at First Minister’s Questions and highlighted in the Daily Record.”