Appeal raises more than £5,000 for Doncaster holidaymaker injured in Greece bar accident

Laurie Jay Balfour, 24, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, needed emergency surgery to remove part of her skull after the accident in a bar in Zante, her friends have said.

The young woman was left lying in a pool of blood, described by one friend as looking like a “murder scene”, according to a post on a Facebook page set up to raise money for Ms Balfour.

Becci Tomlinson set up the page - Laurie Jay Balfour’s Road to Recovery - after flying out to Greece with Ms Balfour’s father Philip.

Writing on the page, Ms Tomlinson said the 24-year-old had gone to a bar during a night out on holiday with four friends.

She wrote: “It was only moments later (her friends) Claire and Amy turned around and Laurie was laid in a pool of her own blood. Claire described it as a murder scene and everything had happened so fast.

“Laurie had been dancing the night away when an unattended nitrogen oxide tank had fallen into Laurie.

“If you don’t know what one of these is it’s pretty much the same size as an average male, 15 stone in weight, These are so big, they are chained up in hospitals, as they should be.

“This tank had fallen on to Laurie’s face, her eye immediately swelled, blood was pouring out her broken nose as she lay there.”

Ms Tomlinson said her friend was taken to hospital, where doctors contacted her parents, Deana and Philip, and told them she had a severe head injury and had cracked the baseline of her skull.

She said she was transferred by air to mainland Greece, where she underwent brain surgery to reduce swelling.

Ms Balfour is currently said to be heavily sedated but stable in hospital after undergoing a tracheotomy.

Friends and strangers have shown their support for Ms Balfour by filling the Facebook page with selfies featuring garlands of superimposed yellow butterflies.

More than 3,000 people have liked the page and Ms Tomlinson said £5,140 had been raised in just three days.

A number of people shared the link on Twitter, including Leeds band The Dunwells, who wrote: “This is a good friend of ours, it would be amazing if you could help out guys.”

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said: “We are in contact with the family of a British national who is in hospital in Athens and will continue to offer our support.”