Campaign raises £31,000 to bring teacher home from Turkish hospital
A teacher stuck in a Turkish hospital after contracting E.coli could return to the UK as early as today after a crowdfunding appeal raised more than £31,000 to fly her home.
Caroline Hope, who has been in Turkey for four years, picked up the potentially deadly infection during surgery for colon cancer last month.
The 37-year-old English teacher had decided to return home to Scotland after receiving her cancer diagnosis in January but complications from the surgery left her fighting for her life in Medical Park Hospital in Izmir, Turkey.
Desperate to bring her home, her family and friends have now raised more than £31,000 through a crowdfunding campaign to pay for a private medical evacuation, as there are strict rules around repatriations for medical reasons.
Her mother Catherine Hope, 74, of Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, said yesterday: “They are hoping to do it tomorrow. I’m really relieved. I’m absolutely delighted she is coming home. We didn’t expect this to happen. We thought she would be home in a few days after her operation.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen for a while. I’ve had to wait at the end of the phone, jumping when it rings.”
Mrs Hope had been due to fly out to her daughter’s bedside but her son Scott, who is in Turkey, called to tell her to prepare for her daughter’s return to Scotland, where she will continue chemotherapy treatment in Glasgow.
Mrs Hope said she had been overwhelmed by the support but called on the government to do more, saying: “They should have something in place. Not everybody has got the wherewithal to cover these costs.”
The case was raised in the Commons by SNP MP Martin Docherty-hughes (West Dunbartonshire), who also wrote to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson calling for him to intervene in the case.
Mr Docherty-hughes said: “We are in a situation where the government is finding money for certain things and we have a citizen who really is in dire straits, who should be under protection of the UK government.”