A mum is battling for her life after suffering a horror collapse on holiday. Stephanie Williams had been enjoying a family trip to Spain when she became seriously ill hours before she was due to fly home to Wales.
Almost a week later, the mum-of-four remains in a critical condition in a Spanish hospital with members of her family by her side.
The nightmare began last Saturday (June 8) when Stephanie and her family, from Swansea, were getting ready to travel to the airport in order to return home from their trip to Alicante in the Costa Blanca area of Spain. But at around 1am, to the horror of her family, Stephanie became unwell in her hotel room and had a seizure, WalesOnline reports.
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Her daughter Aimee said it was “unimaginable” that something like this could happen to such a young mother, who she described as “the most selfless person in the whole world”. Aimee made contact with family back home to arrange for £3,000 to be transferred so that her mum could begin receiving treatment at a Spanish hospital near to the hotel where the family were staying.
While travel insurance is now covering the cost of her treatment at a different hospital, the family had to fork out thousands of pounds initially as Stephanie endured numerous tests before undergoing urgent brain surgery on Monday (June 10), with costs climbing above the £10,000 mark.
Stephanie’s partner remains in Alicante with her, and her father and brothers have flown out to be by her side. Despite the operation being a success, Stephanie remains in a “very critical condition in intensive care” and the family has no idea at this stage of her prognosis or how long she will have to remain in hospital.
Because of that uncertainty, the cost of having her family close to her is rising by the day. To add to the family's woes, Stephanie's mum passed away less than two months ago, so the tragic news from Alicante has only added extra strain to people who were already grieving.
Stephanie’s daughter Aimee and her sister-in law Jade Wright have set up a Go Fund Me page in an attempt to raise some money to help the family during a time of great hardship. The page was only set up a few days ago but more than £15,000 has already been raised from countless donations given by people touched by Stephanie’s harrowing story. You can donate here.
Aimee, who has now returned to Wales, said: “Whilst she is being supported in Alicante, I just want to try and do something to help support my family whilst I’m back in Wales. My mum is only 42 and me and my brothers and sister need her to wake up and fight to get better so she can come home to us.
"My mum is the most selfless person in the whole world and has always put others before herself and now I’m asking for help for her when she needs it the most.
"She’s worked as a nurse herself, a midwife and then a bereavement midwife supporting families. I want to raise as much money as I can to relieve the financial pressures on my family. I would just like to thank you in advance for taking the time to read my story and for any money you can spare.”
Thousands of pounds were raised within hours of the page being set up, and a first target, and then a second, was achieved within days. Overwhelmed by the help and support given to her mum, Aimee added: “We honestly can’t believe the generosity and support my mum has received. We as a family would like to say a huge thank you for the continued support - I can’t believe we have hit our second target of £15,000.
"Although this is a huge amount, my mum is currently self-employed so is therefore having no income whilst in intensive care. The road to recovery will be long and I want to ensure a family member can be with mum in Alicante at all times so she isn’t on her own.
"To try and remove some of the financial pressure for us to do this we are going to increase the target to £20,000, so please keep sharing. If there is any money from the donations left over, once mum is home and better this will be donated to an aneurysm charity."
