A British widow has described how she was forced to bury her husband in an unmarked grave in Cape Verde after he fell gravely ill and died while on a TUI holiday. Jacqueline Timson, 69, from Heighington, Lincolnshire, said her husband Colin Timson, 74, died from septic shock caused by acute gastroenteritis and digestive bleeding, according to a death certificate issued by Cape Verde authorities.
Holiday turned to tragedy
Colin Timson, a retired forklift driver, fell ill on the second day of his £2,000 two-week stay at the Riu Funana resort in Sal in July 2024. His wife discovered him collapsed the following morning, and he died in hospital later that evening. Jacqueline Timson, who also became unwell, said she had no choice but to bury her husband in an unmarked grave just three days after his death.
“We’d been to Cape Verde before and were looking forward to returning. However, when we arrived at the hotel we didn’t feel it was the same standard we’d found on our previous holiday to Cape Verde,” she said. “Some of the food appeared to be undercooked and was lukewarm. The toilets round the pool were full of dead cockroaches and we didn’t go in the pool because the water looked yellow. We both fell ill at the same time but I wasn’t as bad as Colin, who was vomiting yellow sick.”
Lack of insurance and support
Mrs Timson said she believed she did not have adequate travel insurance and thought it would be too expensive to fly her husband home. She was told that cremation was not an option in Cape Verde, so she had to watch helplessly as he was buried. “I still can’t comprehend how we went on holiday together but Colin never came home. The hardest thing is that I couldn’t even bring his ashes home to be alongside me. Instead, he’s buried in an unmarked grave, alone, thousands of miles away from his family,” she said.
Law firm Irwin Mitchell confirmed it now represents more than 2,500 individuals who have reported falling ill with conditions including salmonella, E. coli, and shigella following holidays in Cape Verde since summer 2022. Among those represented are the families of 10 people who died from gastric illnesses while on holidays booked through TUI, the law firm stated. All are pursuing legal action against the travel operator.
Another family’s ordeal
In June 2024, Laurence Brownlie, 67, a retired IT engineer from West Calder, West Lothian, Scotland, travelled to the five-star Meliá Llana Beach Resort and Spa in Cape Verde with his wife Glenna, 66. Three days into the holiday, Mr Brownlie collapsed at a dinner table and died, with a death certificate attributing it to a suspected heart attack. His relatives raised concerns about conditions at the resort, including flies in food and the lack of a defibrillator.
His daughter Erin, 34, said: “It remains difficult not to think how dad should have been coming home with mum at the end of their holiday. Instead, our family was left devastated and trying to come to terms with losing him so suddenly in such traumatic circumstances. I can’t imagine how harrowing it must have been for my mum seeing her soulmate pass away in front of us. We’ll forever be grateful to those in the hotel who tried to help dad but what happened has left us with so many unanswered questions. Nothing will ever take away the pain of knowing he died so far from home.”
Legal action and response
Jatinder Paul, serious injury lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, said: “It’s staggering that we continue to be contacted by hundreds more people reporting how their holidays have been ruined by serious illness. Nothing brings the impact of these incidents into sharper focus than the deaths of British holidaymakers. The first-hand accounts from those who have lost loved ones are not only incredibly stark but harrowing. Our focus is now on securing our clients the answers they deserve and, where needed, either the support they require to come to terms with their loss or the specialist rehabilitation they require to try and overcome the impact of their illnesses the best they can.”
TUI, Riu Hotels and Resorts, and Meliá Hotels and Resorts were contacted for comment. A TUI spokesperson said: “Our thoughts remain with both families. As we would for any family facing a serious incident or bereavement while travelling with us, TUI’s local representatives offered support and assistance in resort at the time. Neither family raised any complaint or concern with TUI, either during their holiday or after returning home, and TUI received no communication about either case until today, when we were contacted by media. As this is now a legal matter, it would not be appropriate for us to comment further.”
