Woman dies from cancer after catching 'bug' on holiday

Woman dies from cancer after catching 'bug' on holiday



A dental receptionist died of cancer six months after returning from holiday - despite thinking she had just caught a sickness bug.

Linzi Craig, 22, suffered severe vomiting and diarrhoea on the last day of a week-long trip to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt in June 2015.

Both Linzi and her gardener boyfriend Darren Reid, 23, who she went away with, assumed she had eaten a dodgy meal.

But after returning home to the UK from her all-inclusive break, she spent weeks in bed constantly vomiting and with aching muscles.

Doctors eventually found her melanoma - a form of skin cancer - she had treated as a teenager had spread to her spleen, stomach, lungs, spine and liver.

After a six-month battle, she died peacefully on December 27, spending Christmas in hospital surrounded by her family.



Her heartbroken mother, Alanna, 51, from Newport-on-Tay, said: 'We all thought she'd got a really bad stomach infection in Egypt and it would clear up.

'Even though we knew she had cancer when she was 14, we never thought it would come back. When it did, we were completely devastated.'

'She couldn’t eat or walk and was in utter agony. The doctors gave her a CT scan straight away, as there was a feeling that something wasn’t right.'

Linzi had the mole removed when she was 14 years old. Doctors told her that she was in the clear.



Her family were relieved and were told all she needed was a check-up every three months for two years to assess her.

As time went on, they believed everything to be well and after six years they thought it was all over.

That was until she returned from her dream holiday, where she had taken Imodium in the belief it would help.

Her parents told her to let the stomach bug run its course and for her to rest, and thought her pain was a result of her sickness.



Painkillers proved ineffective, and she was struggling to walk for weeks as doctors were baffled.

Linzi was sent to Nine Wells Hospital in Dundee, where she was kept in for two weeks while doctors investigated.

Given sickness tablets and antibiotics, she was sent home, but within two days she was readmitted.

After being given a CT scan, a consultant revealed that her cancer she suffered as a teenager had returned.



Alanna, married to lorry driver Colin, 55, added: 'I burst into tears and just cuddled her when the doctors told us. It was so devastating to hear. I held Linzi close and told her everything was going to be okay.

'Then I phoned Colin and Darren and told them they needed to come into the hospital. They both sobbed when I broke the news, it was a total shock to all of us.'

Doctors didn't give her family a prognosis after confirming the secondary cancer, but said she needed to start chemotherapy immediately.

By November, she had started to lose some feeling in her legs and she collapsed in the family bathroom in the middle of the night.

Her parents both heard the crash and took Linzi back to bed. They called the doctor the next day who asked her to return to hospital.



Further scans revealed that a large tumour was putting pressure on her spine.

Linzi underwent radiotherapy, in a bid to shrink the growth, but by Christmas, things had deteriorated.

Alanna said: 'Linzi had done her Christmas shopping online and we were ready to celebrate the festivities together.

'Even though she was poorly, she was so organised and had everything wrapped.'

But on December 21, she went downhill. Swollen and hot, her mother called the palliative care nurse, who said we needed to take her back to the hospital.

Her family could tell things had deteriorated, but Linzi was desperate to spend Christmas at home - not in the hospital.

A consultant visited her at home and said the cancer had changed.



Taken back to Nine Wells Hospital, she was allowed home on December 24, as medics said there was nothing more they could do.

Alanna said: 'It was devastating.I just wanted to get her home and have one final Christmas together, as a family.

'We didn’t tell anyone else about the prognosis, as we knew everyone would be crying and we didn’t want to remember her last Christmas like that.'

On Christmas Eve, her parents, boyfriend, brother Jamie, 30, and grandparents Norma, 77, and Andy, 80, gathered at home to celebrate Christmas Day early.

They opened present and ate 'nibbly bits' around her bed while she slipped in and out of consciousness.

But by the evening, Alanna felt so worried about her daughter that she called an ambulance to take her back to hospital.

On Christmas Day, the family sat around her eating their Christmas dinner from containers.