£3,000 for woman after food poisoning on holiday

A HOLIDAYMAKER says she suffered such extreme pain from an outbreak of food poisoning in a Turkish hotel she would have shot herself if a gun had been available.

Nicola Roberts, 29, an estate agent from Brackla, Bridgend, was on a seven-day break with her partner Gareth David, 36, in Liberty Hotels’ Lykia Holiday World Hotel in Olu Deniz, Turkey, when she was taken ill two years ago.

Earlier this week Thomas Cook was ordered at Cardiff Civil Justice Centre to pay her £3,000 in compensation for her suffering.

Ms Roberts said: “We had booked a seven-nights, all-in package holiday in the resort, which is near Dalaman. The hotel looked lovely in the brochure and seemed to be very nice. We arrived late on the Friday, when I ate a burger and a chicken wrap in the hotel. On the Tuesday I had eggs, beans and toast for breakfast and in the evening I had a lamb kebab.

“On the Wednesday morning

Iwoke up and wasn’t well. At first I thought I had a case of traveller’s diarrhoea, but the gain got worse and I had to be taken to hospital.

“The pain was absolutely horrendous, and if I’d had a gun to my head I would have pulled the trigger gladly. That’s how bad it was.

“I got better after the medication on the Thursday and was released from hospital.

“When we got home I had another week booked off. I needed that to recover before going back to work. I felt very tired.

“I thought my case of food poisoning was an isolated case, but we heard people talking by reception in the hotel about other cases of food poisoning. We found a page on Facebook that included complaints about people falling sick in the hotel going back to 2010.

“We found out there had been an outbreak in the hotel affecting dozens of people before we left home. What really annoyed us was the fact that Thomas Cook sent us and others to the hotel even though there had already been an outbreak. I decided that it was right to seek compensation and got representation