A woman who might never recover after her Tui holiday to Turkey turned into a nightmare has left the company no choice but to U-turn on compensation policy.
Kate Marsh, 55, a home care worker from Nottingham, was enjoying a trip to Green Canyon in Antalya with her partner Andrew Orchard when she sustained a severe leg wound during a boat excursion.
Arranged through Tui, the trip on the second day of their week-long break included a tour aboard a double-decker vessel, followed by a 30-minute swimming stop in the canyon.
As Ms Marsh made her way down the steps towards the water, she lost her footing on slippery algae, invisible to the eye, below the surface of the murky water.
"I slipped and my leg went under the metal steps. It wasn't just a little cut. It was so deep. It was really gruesome," she recalled, describing the incident as "life-altering".
The accident triggered a frantic response from holiday representatives, whom Ms Marsh described as "running around me like headless chickens", before paramedics arrived to transport her to a local hospital.
She had been assured her partner would accompany her to the medical facility and that translation assistance would be provided to help communicate with Turkish healthcare staff.
However, neither promise was kept, leaving Ms Marsh stranded at the hospital while her partner was sent back to their accommodation.
Tui agreed to reimburse Kate Marsh after initially declining compensation
| GETTYShe said: "Because I thought they were going to bring him to me to the hospital, I gave him my bag which had my phone, my bank card, everything.
"But that didn't happen, and the hospital receptionist kept coming to me with paperwork saying I needed to pay but I didn't have anything on me.
"This went on for hours. I felt completely on my own - abandoned. I couldn't get hold of anyone speaking English."
It took approximately seven hours from the accident before she finally made it back to her hotel.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Medical advice prohibited her from entering the pool or participating in further excursions, requiring her to keep her injured leg raised constantly.
Beyond the physical trauma, she began experiencing disturbing psychological symptoms, including dissociative episodes, "like I was living in two worlds" due to trauma and stress.
She has since developed a lump above the injury and continues to suffer persistent pain and swelling, acknowledging her leg "might never be better".
On the day of the accident, Tui representatives informed Ms Marsh she and her partner would each receive either £300 in vouchers or £250 in cash, plus a refund of the £48 excursion fee, pending a legal review that could take up to six months.
The accident happened on a boat trip in Antalya, Turkey
| GETTYWhen the decision finally arrived in May, the company rejected her claim entirely, stating the excursion was not part of the original holiday package and therefore Tui could not be held liable.
Following contact from the Nottingham Post, the travel firm reversed its position, attributing the initial refusal to "miscommunication", and confirming it would now reimburse Ms Marsh.
"Please accept my sincerest apologies, as I feel some wires may have been crossed," the company wrote in correspondence last Friday.
A TUI UK spokesman said: "We are very sorry to hear about Ms Marsh's experience and the injury she sustained during the excursion."
Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter