WHEN Michelle Dell booked a summer holiday to Gran Canaria, she expected two weeks of fun in the sun.
But just days after arriving, the Sheffield mum fell gravely ill – and before long, she knew she was dying.
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Michelle Dell went on holiday to Gran Canaria with her husband Wayne and two daughters Lizzie and RosieCredit: Supplied
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After eating at the all-inclusive buffet, she ended up fighting for her lifeCredit: Supplied
The terrifying ordeal left an even deeper scar on her daughter Lizzie, then 11, who developed a devastating phobia that ruled her life for the next 12 years.
Michelle tells The Sun: “I feel lucky every day of my life to still be here but, also, I have felt terrible guilt for what happened to Lizzie – wondering if we could have done anything differently.
“It took me four years to recover and I now have lots of long-term health problems.
“None of that matters though, because I’m still here.”
The family’s nightmare began in the summer of 2012 after jetting to Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands with friends.
The group upgraded to a new four-star hotel in the popular seaside resort Playa del Ingles after two nights, because the first one they had booked was disappointing.
Michelle, along with husband Wayne, 52, and daughters Lizzie and Rosie, then 10, were in an apartment, with six other pals on the trip located next door.
On the third night of the holiday, the group went for a buffet dinner in the hotel’s restaurant.
Michelle says: “As all-inclusives go, this one felt good quality and the choice of food was good.
“I’m a bit of a clean freak and it seemed very clean.
What is salmonella, what are the symptoms and treatment?
“I and five others in the group went for the Spanish omelette, which tasted perfectly good.”
The group headed out for a few rosés, gin and tonics and Spanish lagers at a nearby bar.
But the next day, things took a dramatic turn.
Michelle says: “In the morning, I went onto my balcony and our friends next door said one of the group had been up all night sick with a bug.
“We had a bit of a giggle and made light of it because we thought it was very minor but as I was talking, I thought, ‘Oh goodness, I need the toilet.’”
Michelle suffered sudden diarrhoea, but assumed it was a minor travel bug.
Within hours, four others were sick. Michelle was getting worse with every passing minute.
It was like the worst horror film I’d ever seen. There was blood all over the floor, sick everywhere and she was screaming in agony
LizzieDaughter
She says: “I was doubled over in agony. I’m not really one to make a fuss but it was absolutely the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life.
“It was as though somebody’s hands were inside my tummy twisting it and the pain wouldn’t stop.”
The hotel doctor was called and tried multiple times to put a cannula in her arm to get fluids in, but Michelle was too poorly and couldn’t be rehydrated.
Michelle says: “By this time I felt like I’d been drugged and was drifting in and out of consciousness.”
Wayne and Michelle had tried to shield the girls from the events unfolding by asking them to stay in their beds – which were separated from their bed by a small partition wall.
But for Lizzie, hearing her mum’s screams was distressing.
Lizzie says: “When I did see her it was like the worst horror film I’d ever seen.
“There was blood all over the floor from the cannula being taken in and out.
“There was sick everywhere because mum was vomiting so much. She was screaming in agony.”
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The terrifying ordeal left a deep scar on her daughter Lizzie, then 11Credit: Supplied
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After seeing her mum ‘dying’, she developed a phobia that took over her life for 12 yearsCredit: Supplied
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Lizzie says: ‘When I saw mum, it was like the worst horror film I’d ever seen’Credit: Supplied
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Michelle, from Sheffield, with Lizzie and Rosie more recentlyCredit: Supplied
Taken to a local hospital in Maspalomas, she was given fluids and sent back to the hotel hours later – still with no diagnosis.
The next day, on day five of the holiday, she collapsed again and was rushed to a larger hospital.
Doctors soon discovered she had contracted an extreme case of salmonella – a bacterial infection linked to food poisoning.
Michelle says: “My body was swollen and huge with the fluids. My eyelids couldn’t even open properly.
“I remember phoning my mum in England from my bed and saying, ‘I think I’m going to die.’
“There was something telling my brain: ‘It doesn’t matter what you do now, your body’s taken over.’ I thought my internal organs were shutting down.”
As the rest of the group began to recover, Wayne stayed with the kids, trying to keep things as normal as possible.
In despair, Michelle called him.
She says: “I told him, ‘You need to come back to the hospital because something’s happening. I’m falling really ill again’.
“He was having pizza with the girls, but I insisted, ‘You need to come now. This is really serious’.
“The staff kept saying, ‘You are fine’. I’m not a melodramatic person but when he came in, I sobbed.
“I told him, ‘I am not fine. I’m going to die. You need to tell them to get me a doctor now to do more tests. Please make them understand I’m just not a hysterical woman. I am ill’.”
SALMONELLA cases are at a record high in Britain – and there are some key signs you can look out for.
In the most recent outbreak, over 100 people were sickened and 14 rushed to hospital after eating tomatoes.
Health officials urged Brits to be on high alert for the symptoms of salmonella infection, which can last anywhere from four to seven days.
Cases hit a record decade high in 2024, soaring by almost a fifth in a single year to over 10,000 cases, UKHSA data shows.
Separate statistics reveal cases in the first quarter of 2025 were even higher than 2024, with some 1,588 cases logged between January and March 2025, up on the 1,541 reported over the same period in 2024.
By comparison, there were 1,328 reports between January and March 2023.
Children under 10 were particularly affected, accounting for 21.5 per cent of cases.
Salmonella, which lives in the guts of animals and humans and spreads through contaminated poo, can cause a sudden bout of fever, vomiting, explosive diarrhoea, stomach pains and headaches, often striking within hours of eating tainted food.
The bacteria, which often taints food if grown in dirty water or handled with grubby hands, attacks the gut lining, damaging cells and stopping the body from soaking up water.
This is what leads to the painful cramps and non-stop diarrhoea as the body flushes out the water it couldn’t absorb.
Most people recover without treatment, but in rare cases it can turn deadly.
Around one in 50 sufferers go on to develop a serious blood infection, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Young children, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems are most at risk of complications.
Thankfully, deaths remain rare in the UK, with fatal cases making up just 0.2 per cent of reports.
Wayne fought Michelle’s corner and doctors agreed to retest her.
They found she had sepsis, a deadly immune reaction to an infection that needs to be treated rapidly.
One of the key symptoms of sepsis is someone saying they feel like they are dying, according to the UK Sepsis Trust, as well as a high temperature, chills, a rapid heart rate, a rash that doesn’t fade when pressed and breathlessness.
The body overreacts to the infection and starts attacking itself, damaging its own tissues and organs.
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Michelle collapsed after contracting salmonella in 2012Credit: Supplied
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Her daughters Rosie and Lizzie were staying in the same roomCredit: Supplied
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Michelle later discovered she had sepsis and thought she was dyingCredit: Supplied
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She sobbed down the phone: ‘I am not fine. I’m going to die’Credit: Supplied
Michelle began to stabilise after her treatment was changed, with a new antibiotic.
Later, doctors told her they believed it was the hotel’s Spanish omelette that caused her illness, due to the timings of events.
Friends also told Michelle that other guests, like the five in her party, had eaten the omelettes and got sick too.
Michelle’s daughters flew home with the rest of the group after the fortnight holiday ended and went to stay with their grandparents, while Wayne stayed at Michelle’s bedside.
She gradually started to feel better, and flew home a week later, but has been left with after-effects, as 40 per cent of survivors are.
She lives with chronic fatigue (also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis, or ME), non-epileptic seizures, chronic migraines and functional neurological disorder – a problem with how the brain receives and sends information to the rest of the body.
‘I’d give myself black eyes’
It wasn’t just her life that was changed though. Daughter Lizzie, who was traumatised by her mum’s brush with death, was also deeply affected.
Lizzie says: “I’d seen my mum so ill in the hotel, and then we’d seen her in hospital looking grey and almost dead.
“The second I got home, the first thing that I got in my head was, ‘OK, so I’m not going to eat.’ In my head, it was a case of, ‘If you eat, you could die’.”
From a healthy 11-year-old, Lizzie grew anxious and gaunt, surviving only on bread sticks, cereal and packaged snacks.
In 2017, five years after the holiday, 16-year-old Lizzie suffered a full-blown panic attack on a train after seeing someone being sick.
She says: “I’d never had one properly like that so when I got home I Googled my symptoms and that’s the first time I read about emetophobia – a fear of vomiting. That was me.”
It spiralled into constant anxiety and self-harm, as Lizzie tried to focus on anything but the fear.
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Lizzie developed emetophobia – a fear of vomitCredit: Supplied
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She almost stopped eating and lost a significant amount of weightCredit: Supplied
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She eventually sought help from phobia specialists Nik and Eva SpeakmanCredit: Supplied
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Lizzie says she felt ‘cured’ after 25 minutes of speaking to Eva and NikCredit: Supplied
“There were days when I had seven or eight panic attacks and wherever I was – on a plane or on a train – I’d start screaming,” she says.
“Looking back, the panic attacks were just this need to create another feeling other than sickness, so I’d create pain.
“I’d even give myself black eyes from hitting myself.”
Though talented Lizzie had won a place at drama school in Manchester, she lived alone and didn’t socialise.
She says: “I didn’t do anything for 12 years. I went to drama school in Manchester but lived on my own because I didn’t want to be around others.
“I didn’t go to parties. I didn’t drink.”
In 2023, Lizzie took a dream job as a Christmas elf in Lapland – but was sent home months later after her weight plummeted from nine stone to just five stone two pounds.
I cherish every day. I’ve gone from seeing my daughter’s life slipping away to seeing her embracing it
Michelle DellMum
She says: “Being abroad, I was just unable to eat anything cooked by others, so I’d be eating breakfast bars from the local shop and not a lot else.
“It got even worse when my flatmate out there got sick.
“I didn’t tell anyone about my worries with food but I was sent home from the job.
“Not long after that I lost my acting agent because I just wasn’t well enough to get parts.
“It’s really sad because I wanted to live, but I’d completely lost all joy in life.
“I was sick of looking at myself in the mirror covered in bruises.”
Michelle, who works as a college lecturer with inclusion students, was desperate to help her daughter.
They saw private and NHS specialists, as well as multiple therapists.
What is emetophobia and how can you overcome it?
By Nik and Eva Speakman
Emetophobia is an intense fear of vomiting. It is a debilitating and often misunderstood phobia.
It can manifest in a range of obsessive-compulsive behaviours, such as excessive sanitisation, extreme food restrictions, eating disorders, health anxiety, and avoidance of travel, medical environments, and even children.
Social withdrawal is common, with many sufferers limiting contact with others for fear of illness, vomit and vomit-causing bugs.
While it is especially prevalent among women, emetophobia remains under-recognised within the medical community, despite being the most common phobia seen in our clinic.
It’s estimated that up to 5.5million people in the UK may be affected, yet provision of effective treatment is still limited.
Emetophobia is not innate. It typically stems from a distressing childhood experience, such as a traumatic incident at school or mirroring an anxious parent’s behaviour.
The key to recovery lies in positively reframing these formative experiences with an experienced therapist.
Using a simple self-help exercise can really help. Create two columns – Fears vs Facts – to challenge distorted beliefs with logic and evidence.
She says: “We were in despair because my husband and I felt like we had exhausted every option.
“Then I saw there was an emetophobia class with The Speakmans in February 2025 in Manchester and I just booked it instantly.
“I held out no hope but I was just happy Lizzie was willing to go.”
Life change experts Nik and Eva Speakman are known for helping thousands overcome phobias.
Lizzie says: “I went into their workshop and by the time I left they’d literally changed my life.
“I shared my story, very nervously on stage. They completely changed the way I had thought about things.
“They told me: ‘Being sick didn’t nearly kill your mum, it was the egg. Being sick had actually helped save her.’
“Twenty-five minutes into speaking to them, I felt completely different.
“Two weeks later, I couldn’t believe it. I got norovirus.
“I’d spent 12 years trying to avoid being sick and now I had it, full on.
“But I was absolutely fine. I was sick all night, non-stop, no issue, no panic attacks.”
Today, Lizzie is thriving – eating normally, running a performing arts school and planning a holiday to Greece.
She says: “I still have some of the thoughts but they don’t stop me from eating three meals a day, piling the food on. I just don’t worry about being sick anymore.
“I used to think I wouldn’t be here for much longer. Now, it’s like I am living properly because I haven’t for so long’.”
Michelle remains full of gratitude having nearly lost her life and watching her daughter turn her life around.
“I cherish every day,” she says. “I’ve gone from seeing my daughter’s life slipping away to seeing her embracing it. I will forever be grateful to The Speakmans.”
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Today, Lizzie is thriving – eating normally and running a performing arts schoolCredit: Supplied
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Michelle says she now ‘cherishes every day’Credit: Supplied
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‘I will forever be grateful to The Speakmans,’ the mum saysCredit: Supplied
For more real-life examples, practical tips, and expert support, tune in to The Speakmans’ Hope Clinic podcast, where emetophobia – and other common issues – are treated live.
To learn more about The Speakmans’ Emetophobia Masterclasses, email: [email protected].
As stomach-turning clips of the 2013 ‘poop cruise’ make the rounds on social media, cruise travel experts reassure holidaymakers why the horrors of the past are unlikely to be repeated
The Carnival Triumph cruise ship turned into a nightmare(Image: REX/Shutterstock)
If you’ve been scrolling through social media lately, you’ve likely been subjected (unwillingly) to videos of fluffy brown sewage exploding out of a cruise ship’s windows. Clips from Netflix’s documentary, Trainwreck: Poop Cruise, are going massively viral – and its left audiences quite literally gagging.
The documentary was released on June 24 and follows the events of the Carnival Triumph: a 2013 cruise liner bound from Texas to Cozumel, Mexico. It was smooth sailing until the ship’s engine room caught fire, leaving over 4000 passengers stranded in the Gulf of Mexico. The fire destroyed the ship’s power system, causing a WiFi outage and the toilets to stop flushing.
What resulted was, unsurprisingly, pandemonium. Passengers were instructed to pee down shower drains and handed red biohazard bags to defecate in. There were reports of backed-up waste from the drains running down the walls and through the hallways.
Sewage spread through the hallways of the Poop Cruise(Image: SWNS)
A passenger, Devin, who was featured in the documentary, said: “You walked down a hallway and all of a sudden, squish-squish-squish-squish…we were in excrement.” They were stranded for four days until tug boats finally arrived to pull the ship to safety.
The story has, unsurprisingly, left social media users horrified. But, if you’ve booked a cruise, or are planning to, there’s no need to worry. Cruise experts from Riviera Travel dispel five common cruise safety myths:
Myth: Cruises are unsafe
Riviera Travel reassures passengers that while it’s normal to feel apprehensive when going on a cruise for the first time, there are thorough safety regulations put in place to ensure travellers are safe on board. They add: “Many passengers who were anxious about going on their first cruise later stated that it became easy to forget they were on a boat!”
They explain: “Strict regulations are followed, and the ship’s state-of-the-art safety features, such as lifeboats, life preservers, and thoroughly trained crew members, make it a secure vessel.”
Myth:
Fortunately, cruise ships are equipped with plenty of resources to prevent this from happening. Riviera Travel says: “These ships also have onboard and offshore staff trained and prepared for these instances if they were ever to happen.”
Myth:
According to Riviera Travel, hygiene is taken “very seriously” on cruise ships. They say: “The catering team ensures food is of the highest quality before being dished out and takes necessary precautions to prevent contamination.
Plus, they add that cruise meals aren’t always buffet-style, and that you can opt for ships that have onboard restaurants and traditional table-service.
Myth:
This is actually a misconception. Riviera Travel emphasises that strict hygiene protocols are followed on cruise ships, with passengers’ health and safety “a top priority” for cruise lines. They explain that cruise lines take all necessary measures to prevent outbreaks like norovirus, as well as following strict guidelines to make sure ships adhere to high hygiene standards.
Although, they add: “Viruses can spread anywhere, so while strict hygiene measures are in place, passengers should still take precautions to reduce their own risk.”
Myth: There’s no medical help if something goes wrong
Riviera Travel reassures passengers that cruise ships have trained medical professionals on board and “are equipped with top-notch facilities for anyone who needs medical attention.” There are also protocols are also in place for more serious medical emergencies, and cruise ships will stop at nearby ports if they need to.
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