A British tourist who fell over and broke his hip while on holiday in Egypt has been told to pay £55,000 to return home, despite being insured.
Geoff Seedall, 69, was enjoying a family holiday in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, when he tripped over in the hotel and fractured the bone.
The grandfather-of-three was told he needed surgery to repair the bone, but doctors in Egypt recommended he return to the UK for the procedure.
Geoff’s daughter-in-law Kelly Seedall, 40, says the travel insurance company want him to pay £40,000 for a medical flight home and £15,000 for his hospital stay.
The company will then reimburse Geoff, who was recently diagnosed with Vascular Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, but his family cannot afford to do this.
British holidaymaker Geoff Seedall, 69, was enjoying a family holiday in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, when he tripped over in the hotel and fractured the bone. Pictured: Geoff with his daughter-in-law, Kelly and grandchildren Ryan and Zara
Geoff has been told by the insurance company to pay £40,000 for a medical flight home and £15,000 for his hospital stay
Geoff with his wife, Eileen, who has been left ‘in pieces’ over the plight of her husband
Kelly said: ‘The whole reason you get travel insurance is so you aren’t in this situation where you have to pay out thousands.
‘If we had the money, then we wouldn’t take out travel insurance, because we don’t need it.
‘But they are saying we have to upfront the cost to get [him] home, and they will pay us back at a later date.
‘We’ve put a complaint in and it will take eight weeks for them to respond – Geoff doesn’t have eight weeks, so we need to get him home.’
Kelly says they have considered a commercial flight home for Geoff, of Stalmine, Lancashire, but they are worried because he’s ‘getting confused..’
She said: ‘They would need to airlift him home.
‘The £40,000 would be for the aircraft and for two nurses to go with him and put him on a stretcher.
‘There’s been talks of him getting on a commercial flight, but he’s confused and is lashing out – he’s also struggling with the language barrier.
‘To put him on an aircraft with other people wouldn’t be the best solution so I think we need to get him home now.
‘Obviously if you are waiting for people to board a plane, then it’s going to be a problem so we are hoping to get the £40,000.
‘But we will do whatever it takes to get him home.’
Geoff, who has type one diabetes, is currently in Egypt with wife Eileen, 66, and grandson Ryan, 21.
Kelly says the whole family are ‘heartbroken’ about the incident and she’s avoided telling her daughter Zara, seven, as she doesn’t want to upset her.
She said: ‘We are heartbroken, I’m trying to hold it together but it’s tearing us apart.
‘You honestly never think it will happen to your family and you take out travel insurance thinking you are fine.
Geoff’s family are said to be ‘heartbroken’ over the situation, which has left Geoff in an Egyptian hospital until he can afford to fly home
The family have launched a GoFundMe page to help raise the funds to bring Geoff home
‘He’s always thinking of others and I just feel so scared and sorry for him because he must be so frightened and confused.
‘We just want him back, I don’t know what we are going to do if we can’t raise the money.
‘I’ve told my daughter Zara only parts of it, I’ve tried not to tell her too much.
‘I’m in bits, I don’t want to tell her that she’s never going to be able to see him again because he’s such an amazing grandad to her.
‘He means the world to us.’
She added: ‘My mother-in-law Eileen is understandably in pieces, watching the love of her life slowly become less and less her husband.’
The family has so far raised just over £4,000 towards their goal via a GoFundMe page.
MailOnline has contacted the insurance company for comment.
