A distraught Angus mum has made it to her four-year-old daughter’s hospital bedside after a fraught mercy trip from the Scotland to Spain.
Cally Simpson from Arbroath remains seriously ill in the intensive care unit of a specialist children’s hospital in Barcelona after her first ever summer holiday turned to tragedy earlier this week when she was dragged unconscious from the swimming pool of a holiday resort in Salou.
The youngster had been staying in the Villa Marina resort of the tourist hotspot with her dad Steven and grandmother when the accident happened on Tuesday.
Her gran, Wendy Simpson, said the family still don’t know how non-swimmer Cally ended up in the pool but the incident led to a desperate effort by Cally’s mum, Kate Miller, to get to her daughter.
Her attempts to leave the UK as soon as she heard the devastating news were blocked by the lack of flights due to a strike by French air traffic controllers and supporters of the family quickly set up a Facebook page to raise funds to pay for Kate’s travel costs and find a way to get her to the toddler’s bedside as quickly as possible.
She finally reached Reus airport, some 60 miles from Barcelona around tea-time on Thursday before rushing to be at her daughter’s side.
The Saving Cally Simpson page has been inundated with messages of support, as updates about the youngster give friends hope that her condition is improving.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are aware of an incident involving a British national in Spain. We are providing consular assistance.”
For more, see Friday’s Courier.