Family of mum who died in Cape Verde seek answers

The family of a nurse who died after coming down with a stomach illness in Cape Verde are struggling to understand how she went on holiday and never came home.

Elena Walsh, from Kings Heath, Birmingham, was staying at the five-star Riu Cabo Verde resort in August with her family, when she fell ill with symptoms including sickness and diarrhoea.

The 64-year-old was taken to hospital but died two days after becoming unwell on the 12-night all-inclusive holiday, which cost about £5,000 and was booked through tour operator Tui.

A spokesperson for Tui said it was investigating and that it had provided support to customers who reported feeling unwell.

Elena is one of six Britons who died after taking holidays on the West African islands since January 2023, with law firm Irwin Mitchell saying it was representing more than 1,500 people who had fallen ill after visits to the country.

Tui, which provides package holidays to Cape Verde, said that as legal cases were now being pursued, it was unable to comment further, but it was fully investigating the claims being made.

Elena, a part-time nurse, had travelled to Cape Verde on 1 August with her husband, Patrick, their son Sean and his fiance, before she began feeling unwell on 8 August.

After her condition worsened overnight, she was assessed by a nurse and transferred to hospital, but she continued to deteriorate and died on 10 August.

Patrick Walsh, 60, who also fell ill, said his wife's condition gradually "got worse and worse" and he wanted to make people aware of what had happened.

"You don't expect to go on holiday and you all don't come back," he added tearfully.

"Just constantly, constantly being sick... the Thursday night I got it out of my system, but Elena didn't."

Walsh described how as there was so much food at the resort, people were "picking and mixing".

"I did say to Elena… This is not a real hotel and it wasn't a real hotel, the standards were way lower," he said.

"She was very inquisitive," he said of his wife. "Anyone she met, she got on with them, and had such a zest for life."

Elena's son, Sean, 29, who was celebrating his engagement at the time, felt hygiene and cleanliness at the hotel were "very deceptive".

"We were hearing so many stories of other people there who just had passing stomach bugs," he said.

"And then sort of little things where restaurants that have a little bit of an outdoor area, you'd notice a lot of flies and things like that around the food and drinks dispensers and things."

Jatinder Paul, from Irwin Mitchell, said the firm had heard the same complaints "over and over again" and they were looking to get Elena's family the answers "they deserve and that they need so desperately".

"Behind all this, behind all the statistics, there's a human story and the human story that this is a scandal and it needs to stop," he said.

"Almost all of these clients of ours, holidaymakers, have booked very expensive luxury holidays, five-star resorts, expecting to have the time of their lives, expecting to go away to celebrate key life milestones, and unfortunately they've come back having the worst time of their lives and in most cases, if not all, they've been holidays from hell."

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