Fundraising page for South Shields pensioner stranded in Italian hospital aims to hit £5,000

Elsie Bradshaw, of Madeira Terrace, South Shields, was on a week-long stay in Sorrento, Italy, with daughter Jane as they toasted her 90th birthday.

However, the dream trip turned into holiday hell when the pensioner broke her hip in a fall just 12 hours after landing in Italy.

Elsie's insurance company has refused to pay for her to be transported home, despite surgeons in Italy recommending she has an operation in England, according to Jane.

As it stands, she is due to have surgery tomorrow after doctors told her family it was too dangerous to wait any longer. She has already spent 16 days in hospital.

However, the fundraising page, on website Go Fund Me, aims to raise £5,000 so she can be operated on in England - with £1,345 already raised.

To make a donation, visit https://www.gofundme.com/2a2zfsycJane, who lives with her mum, said; “It has been absolutely horrendous. My mother is a tough cookie but this is breaking her and me.

“She is getting worse by the day. I visited her on the ward and she just burst into tears.

“I just want to get her home.

“I feel like I am having a nervous breakdown.

“I have sent over my mum’s medical records from the hospital but at first they said they didn’t receive them.

“I have spent over 120 euros on the phone to them trying to sort this out.

“They agreed to fly her home initially so an operation was cancelled last Tuesday.

“Now they are saying she can have the operation in Italy, so she has had to stay more than an extra week in hospital because of this in awful conditions.

“How can they treat a 90-year-old woman like this?

“We have been told she will need to stay in hospital for 10 days to recover, so she will have been in hospital for nearly a month.”