A retired pub landlord who was 'held hostage' by a Turkish hospital for weeks after falling ill on holiday without insurance was forced to pay £25,000 to be allowed to go home.

Malcolm Stocker, 68, began suffering from an upset stomach two days before the end of a two-week trip to Marmaris with his girlfriend Jane.

He was admitted to the Ahu Hospital, where doctors said he was suffering from pneumonia and put in him an induced coma with a medical ventilator for two weeks.

But when the grandfather recovered, the hospital refused to release him until his family paid the first half of the £49,000 medical bill they said he had racked up.

His distraught children said that getting a lawyer helped them to reduce the bill to £25,000, and they launched a fundraiser to help pay the 'extortionate' sum.

It raised more than £17,000, with the family picking up the remainder of the bill, and after more than a month of 'hell' Mr Stocker is now home in Exmouth, Devon.

His son Lee, 42, said: 'It is a huge relief for dad to be back home. It has been an absolute nightmare not knowing what was happening one day to the next.

'The cost of it is just ridiculous, it feels like the hospital was just making up figures. I employed a lawyer and he got it down from £49,000 to £25,000. 

'It is extortionate. It has been said that the hospitals there like to overcharge foreigners five times the amount, I don't know how they get away with it.'

'Everyone who donated is absolutely amazing. Without all the help and support of the people who donated we would not be here right now.' 

Mr Stocker's daughter Emma-Jane also thanked those who donated and said her father would still be in Turkey without their help.

Mr Stocker and his partner flew to Turkey on May 7 for a two-week break.

Due to several pre-existing conditions, he was refused medical insurance for the trip but still decided to go knowing he was not covered for an emergency. 

Just two days before he was due to fly home, Mr Stocker fell ill with a stomach bug and was admitted to hospital on May 19.

He was severely dehydrated and his sodium and potassium levels were found to be dangerously low.

A chest X-ray showed he had pneumonia and he was placed in a medical coma and intubated for two weeks, before being brought out of it. 

It was then his family were informed of the rising medical bill. 

Emma-Jane said she had heard reports of other foreign patients being unnecessarily sedated in Turkish hospitals to increase the medical bills.

She said during their ordeal: 'It is like they are holding him hostage and won't release him until the first £20,000 is paid. They won't give us an itemised bill or any paperwork. It seems like it is all made up.'

Ms Stocker, who works as a medical secretary, flew out to see her father with her older sister Kerry-Ann, 37.

She said few staff at the hospital spoke English and they had not been granted access to any of his doctors.

Lee, a taxi driver from Weymouth, was determined to stay by his father's side and spent six-and-a-half weeks with him in Turkey, with his employer Weyline kindly paying for his hotel.

After flying back to Britain, Malcolm stopped off at the Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester for a check-up before returning home to Exmouth.

Lee added: 'Dad is doing ok. He still doesn't feel well and is struggling with mobility after seven weeks in bed.

'He's got a bit of a way to go still and we're booking doctor appointments for blood tests and things to find out exactly what's going on.

'It's been a headache but we're so glad to be home.'

Emma-Jane said: 'If anything comes from this, we hope this raises awareness. 

'Please never travel without insurance and find yourself in this situation. Spare yourself weeks of hell and battling!'

My husband and I jointly own our home, which has a £86,000 mortgage left to pay. It has 18 years left and we have one year remaining on our current 1.69 per cent fixed rate.

Our property has about £260,000 equity in it due to house prices rising in the past and extensive renovations. 

We are both 49 and work full time on average salaries. We have no pension apart from state pension; our only asset is the property. We have a plan to downsize once our daughter, who is 10, leaves home to help pay for retirement.

My question is, is it worth trying to pay the mortgage off faster?

We could probably put a £20,000 lump sum towards it, and make an overpayment of £500 each month. This would mean we could pay it off in six years rather than 18. 

But would we be better off just putting the money into pensions instead? 

David Hollingworth replies: You are at a point in your life where a number of goals and requirements are all competing for priority.

Even though it may seem a while away yet, you may already be thinking about planning ahead for future costs as your young daughter grows up, including further education.

At the same time, it's not unusual for thoughts to turn to financial provision after retirement.

I'm not a pension adviser, but it makes sense for you to be considering how you're doing with your retirement savings now, and where you'd like them to be.

Taking stock of your current pension pot and looking at your targets will help. There are plenty of online resources, such as the MoneyHelper website which has a pension calculator you can play with. 

A financial adviser will be able to help you understand the possible options to hit your goal.

This of course all comes alongside the standard cost of living including the mortgage payment, utilities, travel and other regular day to day costs. 

The good news is that your mortgage has so far avoided the impact of the rise in interest rates in the last couple of years. 

Where are mortgage rates headed? 

Your fixed rate is very low, and must clearly have been locked in prior to the interest rate hikes which started at the end of 2021. 

That has given you great insulation against the rise in payments that many homeowners have had to grapple with. 

With another year left to run on your fix, it makes sense to be thinking about how things may look when your deal comes to an end.

The Bank of England base rate is expected to fall as this year progresses and inflation is brought back under control. 

Even though base rate is expected to ease, there's no anticipation of a return to the ultra-low rates that existed when you took the current deal.

The lowest five-year fixed rates for re-mortgage customers are still only a touch below 4.5 per cent, which could add around £120 per month based on your current mortgage.

You're therefore right to want to make the most of the remainder of the current rate to help deal with the higher costs to come. 

Your lender, Nationwide, will probably allow you to make overpayments of up to 10 per cent each year without an early repayment charge. 

Rather than base this on the outstanding balance like many lenders, Nationwide will allow up to 10 per cent of the original balance to be repaid each year without incurring a penalty.

That would give you the ability to make some regular or lump sum overpayments now, whilst your monthly costs are lower - but it is important to check that you won't go over your allowance. 

Alternatively, you could consider saving into a higher-rate savings account. 

Savings rates are likely to outstrip your current mortgage rate and could help you build a bigger lump sum to pay off when you review your mortgage. Be sure to account for any tax that could be payable on the savings interest.

You need to retain a liquid cash balance as an emergency fund, but reducing your mortgage more quickly is unlikely to feel like a bad decision. 

Pension vs mortgage 

The difficult bit is getting the right balance, as all your aims are clearly important. 

Rather than focus only on the mortgage, you may want to spread your resources.

You have a few key considerations. You need to ensure you have an adequate cash buffer in place, so don't use all spare cash to plough into the mortgage or pension.

Take specialist advice on where your pension savings sit, and what you need to do to hit your targets. Ask about the pros and cons of increasing your pension contributions, now or in future.

Aiming to pay off the mortgage more quickly isn't a waste of assets, and I'd encourage you to try to make inroads once you consider what flexibility you have, and how you may be able to spread resources to better achieve your goals.

Anyone with common sense knows it's a good idea to protect your food when at the seaside.

But while seagulls might steal your chips - or even your ice cream - they actually do prefer seafood, according to a study.

Researchers have discovered that seagull chicks raised on an 'urban' diet will still choose fish over human snacks.

The team, from the University of Exeter studied herring gull chicks that had been rescued after falling off roofs in towns across Cornwall.

While being raised in captivity, before they were released, they were given either a 'marine' diet consisting mainly of fish and mussels, or an 'urban' diet containing mostly bread and cat food.

Every few days the gull chicks were presented with a choice of all four foods in different bowls, to test which they preferred – and all gulls strongly favoured fish.

'Our results suggest that, even when reared on an 'urban' diet of foods found only around people, these chicks might be unlikely to seek out urban foods as adults,' said lead author Emma Inzani.

'Human-associated foods are often both reliably present and easy to obtain – but when fish is available they clearly prefer it.'

Herring gulls are often seen as a pest in urban areas, where they scavenge for dropped food and in bins, and sometimes take food from people.

However, the species is on the UK's List of Highest Conservation Concern due to ongoing population declines.

Ms Inzani said a combination of reduced fish stocks in UK waters – coupled with abundant and easy access to food waste in towns – may mean it is not as profitable for gulls to spend a lot of energy going out to sea to forage.

 

 

Previous research has shown that parent gulls often switch to finding more seafood once their chicks hatch, possibly due to seafood providing more of the nutrients chicks need to grow.

In the study, published in the journal PeerJ, all 27 chicks had access to food all day.

However, half of the chicks had urban food for 80 per cent of the day and seafood for 20 per cent, while the other half of the chicks received the opposite diet.

When presented with all four foods together on days five, 10, 15 and 35 of the study, both groups consistently favoured fish – and even those that tried the bread rarely ate much of it.

Chicks' preferences for fish found in this study may reinforce the behaviour observed in parent gulls to switch to provisioning more marine-sourced foods upon chick hatching, the researchers said.

'Animals can live and exploit urban areas for human food waste,' said senior author Dr Neeltje Boogert.

'However, this does not necessarily mean they're thriving or that they prefer this food, rather than making the best of a bad situation.

'More research is needed to investigate how the food young animals receive affects their later life, including their food choices, health and breeding.'