Please help bring Vinnie home.

Hi, my name is Claire, I'm trying to help a family in need. Tom, Julie, and Vinnie have been on holiday in Turkey, prepared to have a lovely time after school broke out for the summer holidays. Feeling prepared for all circumstances after purchasing travel insurance coverage for their holiday from Holiday Extras, underwritten by MayDay Assist.

However, on July 18th the unexpected happened. Vinnie, who is 11, broke his leg, a nasty break, at the resort they were staying at and had to go to hospital. Their first experience at the hospital was not great, he was denied any pain relief until the insurance company guaranteed the payment; Vinnie is 11. That is hard enough for Vinnie, but his parents had to watch their child go through unimaginable pain while they could do nothing about it. After being discharged, they requested to be repatriated by their insurer, MayDay Assist, but they ended up back in the hospital, where they were told Vinnie needed immediate surgery, which took place in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Follow their story here - Bring Vinnie Home

A long story short, but to get this much-needed ball rolling, they got the okay to fly from the hospital and made it to the airport, only to be denied boarding by EasyJet. Vinnie has a full-length leg splint that is secured with bandages so is safe to fly. MayDay Assist insisted that they needed to go back to the hospital to get the cast cut down to be below the knee so Vinne could fly. However, the surgeon who operated was adamant the cast should NOT be cut down due to the fact his “operation is not an absolute, but a relative fixation, which is provided via Titanium Elastic Nails, which is the best and minimally invasive method for paediatric age group, with Vinnie being in a cast including both proximal and distal joins postoperatively, hence the long leg cast is a must.”

For Tom and Julie this is an awful predicament; to be stuck between medical advice and an insurance company who are insisting.

Again, they requested to be repatriated, but this was not acknowledged. They were put in a hotel and were told they would be there for 4 nights before flying back on Thursday 27th July with a medical escort, only to be told on Tuesday after one night in the hotel, they were being evicted as the insurance had not paid. With no end in sight and beginning to feel complete despair Tom and Julie and their friends have taken to social media to try and spread the word and get a resolution to a very difficult situation, that only seems to be getting harder.

Behind the scenes, Dr Luke Evans, our local MP has been doing all he can. The embassy has been involved but still nothing was happening to get them home! A contact from one of the parents of Vinnie’s football team, AFC Market Bosworth, got in touch with a connection at Airlec Air Espace, a market leader in Aero-Medical Transport. This company has joined forces with Hearts First Ambulance Service, a private ambulance service to PRIVATELY REPATRIATE the family at a cost of £40,000 which they have said they will cover as long as we try to raise and contribute some money to this exorbitant cost!

No words can be used to explain what this means to Tom, Julie and Vinnie.

The worst part is that this could happen to you, or I or anyone! When you purchase travel insurance that includes repatriation and the unthinkable happens, you think ‘at least I have travel insurance’. MayDay Assist has not stepped up in helping this family get the treatment their sporty son deserves and who already has been told he will be unable to play his beloved rugby at Market Bosworth RFC and football at AFC Market Bosworth for the foreseeable future. Instead, two independent companies have stepped up, collaborated and helped in this desperate situation!

We are aiming to raise as much money and awareness as we can for these two amazing companies - Airlec Air Espace and Hearts First Ambulance Service who have stepped up when the travel insurance provider has not!

Remember to follow the family here Bring Vinnie Home