Brit gran stranded in Benidorm with mind bleed faces £30k invoice to get house

Mally Stubbings, 50, from Lincolnshire, was on a family holiday in Benidorm, Spain, when she suffered a brain bleed and was admitted to intensive care – her family face a £30k bill to bring her home

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A grandmother has been left stranded in Spain after suffering a brain haemorrhage while on holiday in Benidorm. Mally Stubbings, from Boston, was rushed into intensive care on Tuesday, June 9, following a CT scan that detected a minor bleed on her brain.

While she has since been moved from the intensive care unit, she continues to be hospitalised a week on, with her family uncertain about her discharge date, never mind her journey back to Britain, reports Lincolnshire Live.

Her sister-in-law, Natalie Hancock, explained: “She’s still stuck in the hospital in Benidorm, she’s not in intensive care any more, she’s on a normal ward, but they have told us she’s not allowed to fly back to England because of the air pressure.

“They’ve got no idea when she’s going to be discharged.”

The 50-year-old had been enjoying a family getaway in Spain alongside her three children, two grandchildren, son-in-law, brother and sister-in-law when the incident occurred.

Mally is battling stage three terminal lung cancer, and on Friday, May 8, she completed two years of treatment designed to prolong her life.

Natalie revealed that owing to Mally’s medical treatment, they had been prevented from taking a proper family break and were keen to do something meaningful together to create lasting memories.

Mally left with her children and grandchildren on Tuesday, June 2, before being joined by her brother Stuart and Natalie on Tuesday, June 9, in what they had planned as a surprise. However, Mally became severely ill at the beginning of the break due to a stomach bug, and was taken into hospital on Monday, June 8, before being discharged the next day.

Then on Wednesday, June 10, she lost all feeling in her legs and suffered several blank seizures, prompting her family to rush her to A&E.

Natalie said: “An ICU doctor came and said we are going to admit her to the ICU as she has a small bleed on the brain.

“She was in the ICU for a full day and night, and then she was moved to a normal ward and has been there since.”

Mally’s partner Carl, her daughter Gypsy and two grandchildren have remained in Benidorm to be by Mally’s side.

They were forced to check out of the hotel on Saturday, when they were scheduled to fly back to the UK, and secured an Airbnb, which set them back £1,000 for the week.

Natalie said: “They have insurance, but it seems you have to pay for everything and then claim it back from the insurance company lately, so we’re in a bit of a predicament, really.”

Natalie, 47, set up a GoFundMe page to assist the family members who have remained abroad with Mally, while others were forced to return due to work obligations or because they couldn’t afford to extend their stay.

She said: “We can’t leave her out there on her own.

“There’s a massive language barrier in the hospital as well; there is a translator, but you can’t always get hold of her, so they’re having to use Google Translate all the time.”

Natalie added: “We have no clue how long she’s going to be out there.”

The family considered hiring a private company to organise Mally’s return to the UK, but they were quoted a staggering sum of over £30,000.

Given that they had saved “really hard” just for the holiday, this is simply not feasible for them.

Natalie stated: “It’s absolutely insane, no normal person has that type of money.

“They had all saved really hard, and this holiday was to make memories, and we have no memories, we just have bad ones now.”