Nan stuck in Turkey told complete paralysis is best case scenario | World | News

The family of a British gran suffering from a brain tumour is desperately trying to get her back home to the UK for treatment. Gill Taylor-Scarth, 56, was diagnosed with the condition just weeks after the tragic death of her husband Kevin, 65.

Kevin passed away in December, before Gill visited a doctor in January, complaining of hearing loss. She was devastated to find out that she was suffering from a large brain tumour. Gill – from Formby – has been undergoing treatment for her condition at the Walton Centre.

She was given the green light to go on a two-week holiday to Hirasonu in Turkey in June, which her deceased husband had booked for the family before his untimely death.

Gill’s daughter Sophie Taylor told the Liverpool Echo that her mum had been perfectly fine in June.

The family decided to go away again on August 15, returning to Turkey for another holiday, before Gill was scheduled to have an operation to try and remove the tumour on August 29. Gill took out a £700 health insurance to ensure she was fully covered if things went wrong, which unfortunately they did.

Sophie explained: “She was fine for the first few days, she became off balance after a few days into the holiday and took herself for afternoon naps and was drinking lots of water. Then she started complaining of a headache, but she seemed okay. On Saturday [August 23], she was really unwell; she was in the hotel room and couldn’t keep anything down.

“We immediately planned to book a flight home. We started looking at flights back to Liverpool, but we spoke to my auntie, who suggested she may not be safe to fly, so we asked the hotel to ring a doctor to come and see her.”

The doctor told the family Gill needed to go to the hospital immediately, and she was taken to Antalya Hospital, three hours from Hisaronu.

The hospital’s medical staff have told them that Gill needs an operation, but the procedure carries a huge risk due to the location of the tumour.

“We’ve been told there is only a slight chance she will survive the surgery if they do it, and the best outcome is that she will be completely paralysed because of where the tumour is,” Sophie said. “It’s pushing on her brain stem, and she is at high risk of dying.”

The family want to repatriate her to the UK to continue her treatment at the Walton Centre. “We just want to get her home. I don’t want her to die here [in Turkey],” Sophie said.

The best chance of doing that is to get her mum on a Medevac flight. A Medevac flight is an air ambulance service that specialises in rapid and safe medical transport across the world. However, it’s very expensive, costing around £50,000.

Sophie has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for the flight to get Gill back to the UK as soon as possible. You can visit the GoFundMe page here.