A FAMILY is facing ruin after being told it will cost £6,500 to fly a sick relative home from Ibiza.

Martin Hartwell, 46, was taken ill with an angina attack while on holiday on the Mediterranean island.

He and his family expected his return home in an air ambulance to be covered by holiday insurance.

But his insurance company says his cover is invalid and is refusing to pay.

His mum, Lily Hartwell, 66, of Stonhouse Crescent, Radley, pictured with Martin's uncle Derek Nutt, said there was no way she and her family could find that amount of money to bring her son home.

Mr Hartwell, of Saxton Road, Abingdon, suffered the attack halfway through his £200 week's holiday and had to be rushed to hospital. He has already spent a week recovering in a hospital clinic - running up a bill of more than £1,500.

He has been told he is not well enough to fly home without medical assistance - an air ambulance will cost £6,500.

The family say Norman Insurance, of Reading, should pay for the flight and all medical costs.

But the firm says Mr Hartwell's cover is invalid because he suffered the same medical problem before the holiday. The family reject that and have sent a note from his GP saying that previous treatment he received in England was not linked with his attack.

The family have already had to pay medical costs out of their own pockets, as well as £150 in international phone calls.

Speaking from his bed in Ibiza, Mr Hartwell said: "It has been a nightmare. My family cannot afford the sort of money that is being talked about. I have no idea at all what's going to happen." The hospital staff here have been brilliant but the longer I'm here, the more the costs run up."

Mr Hartwell, who works in the building trade, had fluid syringed from an arm before he flew to Ibiza but given the all-clear to fly by his doctor. GP, Dr Neil Crossley, of The Abingdon Surgery in Stert Street, gave him the all clear to fly.

Dr Crossley has also since written a letter on the family's behalf saying the treatment he had in England is unrelated to his angina attack.

Mr Hartwell travelled to Ibiza with a cousin and two friends. They paid for the trip to cheer him up after his medical problems and a recent divorce. They have since returned home, leaving Mr Hartwell in Ibiza.

Mrs Hartwell said: "It is driving me up the wall. I have got high blood pressure and I can't sleep. I'm going crazy with worry."

Mr Hartwell's uncle, newsagent Mr Derek Nutt, said: "I am very angry about this. How do you expect his mother, who is a widow and a pensioner, to find £6,500?

"I have paid the clinic £1,512 for his treatment already - we have no more.

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