Yorkshire firm pays £28,000 bill to bring holiday stroke victim home

Lynne Woodward, 55, flew to the resort of Sharm el Sheikh with her husband Mike on November 28 and the couple thought they were covered by travel insurance.

They did not realise that an earlier episode of ill-health suffered by Mrs Woodward in early November had rendered their travel cover void until Mr Woodward tried to make a claim.

Mr Woodward, of Brinsworth, Rotherham, said his wife had been seen by doctors at Sheffield's Royal Hallamshire Hospital after she lost peripheral vision in her left eye, but they later told her she was fit to go abroad.

The 61-year-old, a maintenance fitter at a factory in Hunslet, Leeds, says he is now facing hospital bills of 2,000 a day and added: "I couldn't believe it when the insurance company said we weren't covered.

"They said they had contacted our GP, who told them Lynne had suffered a mini-stroke. They said our insurance was void."

Mr Woodward has been told by Egyptian doctors that his wife is unlikely to recover from her stroke, but her bosses at All Print Supplies in Rotherham said they had felt compelled to help out.

Mrs Woodward's manager Louise Stables said: "Nobody here could believe what has happened.

"When the managing director Kevin Wallace heard about what had happened he said we should pay to get her home. At least she will be back on British soil."