Leeds family stranded in Egypt 'desperate' for help to get home
A Leeds mum who's currently stranded in Egypt says she's desperate for help to get home - after her daughter was stopped from flying when her mental health suddenly deteriorated on holiday.
A Leeds mum who's currently stranded in Egypt says she's desperate for help to get home - after her daughter was stopped from flying when her mental health suddenly deteriorated on holiday.
Karleena has paranoid schizophrenia which her doctors in the UK believed to be under control, but a week into their holiday she started suffering problems.
She’s now being treated in a special unit in Egypt where her mum Grace Wheeler says the staff don’t speak much English. She needs to be well enough to be given a fit to fly certificate – without it, she can’t return home.
Grace is now paying the medical bills as well as her own hotel costs in the hope her daughter will recover, but needs to find an estimated £5,000. They’ve been out there for an extra fortnight, and Grace says they could be there for much longer if the situation doesn’t improve.
“If I can’t afford to pay Karleena’s medical bills, she’ll be discharged from the clinic without a fit to fly certificate,” she told Radio Aire.
“If she has an episode in the street, it runs the danger of her being arrested. Mental health isn’t understood very well in the developed world, let alone in a developing country.
“We’re accumulating bills because without treatment, Karleena won’t be able to fly. She needs to be stable, and in order to be stable she needs medication.
“On a good day you’ll go and she’ll be smiling and laughing and joking. On other days you’ll go and she’ll look very cross. There’ll be no ‘please’ or ‘thank you’ and she’ll accuse people of being on drugs.
“I’m just trying to stay strong for Karleena. To show any kind of negative emotion will put her under stress and cause another chronic episode.”
Grace has now started a fundraising page to help raise money to cover her costs.