Peter Beetham, 49, from Winsford, Cheshire, flew to Gran Canaria on March 13 for a £12,500 all-inclusive holiday with his partner Sharleene Hickman and a friend to celebrate being cancer-free after three years of chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer. On the second day, he began spewing blood by the pool and collapsed on the way to the bathroom.
Misdiagnosed and sent back
Hotel staff called an ambulance, but hospital medics dismissed him as having sunstroke and gave him hydration drinks. The next day, he was losing constant blood on the toilet and decided to return home on a £50 flight on March 15.
He went straight to Manchester Royal Infirmary, where doctors found internal bleeding from an ulcer that had exploded in his bowel, linked to surgery to remove his pancreas in August 2025. He needed seven blood transfusions and an operation, spending 18 days in hospital.
'I should have been dead'
Peter said: 'I went [on holiday] with my partner and my friend because I had just beaten cancer... I was sitting there drinking water and felt a bit sick. Then I spewed up a litre of blood from my mouth.' He added: 'The hotel called an ambulance and I went to the hospital. They just looked at me like there's nothing wrong with me and said it was a heat sunstroke.'
He continued: 'I woke up the next morning and went to the toilet seven times and there was constant blood coming out the back of me... We flew home the next day. I went straight to Manchester Royal. They said I had internal bleeding because an ulcer exploded.'
Peter said doctors told him he should have died by the pool or on the flight. He recalled: 'I had seven blood transfusions and a small operation and now I'm on the mend. It was horrific, I'm very lucky to be alive.'
Recovery and fear of travel
He described losing 'every bit of blood' in his body, turning white with clear lips. He returned to hospital after further bleeding and is due for another iron transfusion and scans. 'I'm too scared to plan another holiday,' he said.
