A family have thanked supporters following an appeal to help bring a grandad who broke his hip in a fall while on holiday back to the UK.
Geoff Seedall, 69, tripped in Egypt and injured himself and the family has now been informed to fly him home on a stretcher costs around £40,000, despite Geoff having travel insurance.
The grandad, who also has dementia and Alzheimer's, had landed in Sharm El-Sheikh on September 14 for a two-week holiday with daughter Helen, son-in-law David and grandchildren Rayan and Lauren.
But he suffered a fall on September 20 and has spent the past 12 days in hospital.
A GoFundMe appeal has raised £4,800 and the family were keen to thank everyone who donated so far.
The family are in talks with the insurance firm and spoke out after initially being told they needed to pay for the costs themselves.
Geoff’s daughter-in-law Kelly said: “We are so incredibly grateful to have such wonderful and kind people around us.
“Eileen (Geoff’s wife) is so very grateful also and passes on all of her thanks to each and every one of you who has donated and/or shared the GoFundMe page.
“I honestly cannot tell the stress and pressure that we have felt as a family in the last week.
"It's crazy how we take our normal lives for granted, but now I wish so hard to go back to that time and for this all to be over.”
The family said they had received some positive news and he recognised photos of the family dog and his granddaughter.
However the hospital was concerned about how confused he has been and sent him for a brain scan to check if the dementia and Alzheimer's had worsened.
Kelly said: “We are waiting for these results and praying it is good news.
"Unfortunately the hospital bill is increasing the longer he is in the there so what was £15,000 is now around £24,000 come October 4.
“We are still in talks with the insurance company and trying to stress that it is for everyone's benefit that we get him out of there as soon as possible.
“We are also looking more into commercial flights which will look at removing seats from the back of the plane to place him on a stretcher there, instead of an air ambulance, which is very costly.
“He will still need nurses to accompany him but it's approximately £16,000 so if we can get him safely out of there this way and lowers the cost, we will have to.
"Time is not on our side, and our main aim is to get him home as soon as possible.”
You can support the fundraiser by searching 'Bring Geoff Home' on the GoFundMe website.
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