‘Don’t let it be your best friend’

The best friend of a woman who died from methanol poisoning on holiday has called on the government to do more to educate teenagers in schools about the dangers of drinking alcohol abroad.

Bethany Clarke was travelling in Laos in south-east Asia with childhood friend Simone White when they drank free shots they were offered in a hostel in November.

The following day, they both became unwell and initially thought they had food poisoning. But, a few days later, 28-year-old Simone died in hospital.

The Department for Education have been contacted for a comment about Bethany’s petition.

Simone, who was from Orpington in south-east London, and Bethany planned to stay in Cambodia for just under two weeks, and spend four days in Laos.

They fell ill after drinking six vodka shots served to them at the Nana Backpackers hostel in traveller hotspot Vang Vieng.

Five other tourists also died after drinking at the hostel.

Their drinks are thought to have contained methanol – a deadly substance often found in bootleg alcohol.

Medical specialists say drinking as little as 25ml of methanol can be fatal, but it is sometimes added to drinks because it is cheaper than alcohol.

But Bethany, 28, tells BBC Newsbeat they didn’t even realise anything was wrong until the next day.

“This all happened on the fourth day of the trip. We did the tubing that day and that was good,” she says.

“It’s difficult to obviously describe the timeline. I think when I realised it was all going wrong was when we were on the kayaks for a trip we were doing the following morning. So just over 12 hours on.

“I guess that was when me and Simone were flat on the back of these kayaks, not being able to use our arms. We were just literally staring up into space.

“That was a moment where I thought I really don’t understand what’s happening to us. It just seemed like I was just having to accept my fate.”

Bethany says even when they tried to get help, it took them a while to be treated for methanol poisoning and they had to search for information about it themselves.

“The doctors kept saying it was food poisoning, which obviously didn’t help with trying to treat what was going on,” she says.

“This is when our other friends said ‘let’s get to a private hospital’. In the ambulance on the way there our friend mentioned to the paramedic ‘could it be methanol poisoning?’ He’d done a little bit of research on his phone.

“They rushed Simone off to have dialysis straight away and said to me ‘look can you just sign these forms and we’ll do our best to save her life?’

“And yeah, they did their best.”

Bethany says the group trusted the hostel because the reviews were good but she’s now urging others to be careful.

“We didn’t think we were doing anything stupid, but obviously now I do feel like I should have known more.

“The advice is from me ‘steer clear, drink beer’. Look up the symptoms, be mindful about where you’re drinking.

“Just don’t let it be your best friend that dies from methanol poisoning.”

Bethany’s also set up a petition calling for the dangers of methanol poisoning to be put on the school curriculum in the UK.

It says “children should be taught the dangers of consuming bootleg alcohol as part of the PSHE and/or Biology curriculum in school”.

“I think it just needs to be a five minute talk or possibly even some kind of public health advert, just giving the case study of Laos and saying this can happen,” she says.

“If people want to take the risk and drink it, at least they’ve been educated and then they might even be able to spot some of the symptoms if they do happen to drink it.”

Bethany is currently working in Australia and has since made a full recovery.

She says Simone was “so full of life, energetic, sporty, musical – there’s 100 adjectives I could probably come up with”.

“She was just the best friend that anybody could hope for.

“If you ever had a problem she’d always be trying to help you with it and she was just such a good listener.”

A spokesperson for the Foreign Office said: “We provided consular assistance to British nationals and their families and we remain in contact with the local authorities following an incident in Laos.”

The Department for Education hasn’t responded to Newsbeat about the petition – but its current guidance says students should be made fully aware of the risks of types of drugs and alcohol by the time they leave school.

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