EXCLUSIVE: Brother of Laura Plummer speaks to Viking about "nightmare" they're facing
Kirk Plummer says seeing his sister in prison in Egypt for the first time was the most difficult thing he's ever had to do.
The brother of a Hull woman imprisoned in Egypt has been speaking exclusively to Viking about the nightmare they're facing.
Kirk Plummer's been speaking to us for the first time since his younger sister, 33-year-old Laura Plummer, was sentenced to 3 years for taking banned painkillers into the country.
Next week marks 6 months since Laura was sent to prison in Cairo and the hope was she would have been pardoned.
The family is still living in hope she'll be released early and are due to appeal her sentence in September.
Kirk told Viking that what his family's going through - he wouldn't wish on his worst enemy:
"I wouldn't wish what me and my family are going through on anybody, nobody. No-one wants to see their daughter or sister in prison and if it happened to them then they would realise just how bad it is. But what we are going through is nothing compared to what Laura is going through in prison out there.
"You sometimes just sit and think and it hits you again that she is still there and as a family we are trying to get on and lead a normal life but it's hard and you are constantly reminded that she is still there with 20 other women sat on a cell floor.
"The last 6 months have been an emotional rollercoaster and you get ups and downs. One minute you are angry that she even went to Egypt and then you get mad that she's been arrested for what she did."
Kirk said his sister is coping and is in better spirits:
"She is looking well and feeling better which is less of a worry but obviously I still worry about her every single day.
"She also has more of an understanding now of what's going on whereas before she didn't have a clue about what was going on and she does find time to smile now when we visit her every three weeks."
Kirk says he'll never forget the moment he first saw her in prison:
"She hasn't cuddled me for 30 years, since she was 5 years old actually, and she squeezed me so tight and it was so hard to leave without her in that place, she just doesn't belong there.
"I always think about the day she is going to get home, that gets us by, that day we are bringing her home but we just don't know when that is going to be. I think about that day all the time, every night before I go to bed I think about it."
Kirk is asking people to get involved with a fundraiser.
He's doing a Fundraising Boot Camp this Saturday (23rd June) at JD Gyms, Clough Road, Hull between 7 and 8am.