British holidaymakers are taking legal action against a five-star resort in Cape Verde after being struck down with ‘severe food poisoning’.
Among the ten claimants is Graham Lamont, 59, who lost 17lbs in weight after being falling ill at Riu Palace Santa Maria and is still being treated by doctors to this day.
The father was holidaying at the five-star resort last May to celebrate his daughter finishing school when he and his wife, Josephine Black, became unwell.
The couple continued to feel under the weather – even having to take days off work – after they landed back on British soil, but whilst Josephine’s health improved the NHS training manager continued to suffer.
Grieving widow, Sarah Tootell, 44, whose trip to the West African island to scatter her late husband’s ashes was wrecked when she became ill has also joined the lawsuit.
Josephine, 53, who is also part of the legal probe began to become increasingly concerned about Graham has he continues to lose weight following the food poisoning.
‘The amount of weight he’s lost is such a big concern now and doctors have taken a number of blood tests to discover more about his illness,’ she said.
‘This is the last thing you expect from a five-star holiday and we now wish we’d never been.
‘We’ve spoken to others who fell ill at the same time and have seen terrible reports about this hotel since coming home.
‘I just wish we’d seen some of these reviews before we left.’
The council worker and her husband from Glasgow, jetted off to the island for a week-long stay at the resort with their two kids on May 10.
The trip, booked through TUI, was a chance to celebrate their daughter Freya, 18, finishing school and to enjoy a final family break before she began university.
But it was not long before they began to suffer the effects of food poisoning at the same hotel where over 300 bouts have been reported since 2022.
On May 13, Josephine suffered severe stomach cramps and diarrhoea while Graham fell ill with similar symptoms on May 16, just before they were due to return home.
He later lost more than 17lbs in weight and remains ill to this day.
Josephine said: ‘This trip was booked as a special treat with Freya finishing school and as probably our last family holiday together before she starts university.
‘We’ve never tried five-star or all-inclusive before and this seemed a perfect time. We couldn’t have been more wrong.
‘I started to be sick a day into the holiday and I have never felt so ill in my life.
‘I was still ill on returning home but Graham has seemed to get the worst of it. He was so poorly, and had to travel the following day.’
Sarah Tootell, from Bury, Lancashire, fell ill on the sun-kissed island where she’d headed on May 8 for a week-long stay with her daughter, Halle, nine.
The trip, also booked via TUI, was the first time Sarah travelled alone with her child and was a chance to scatter the ashes of her husband, who died six years ago.
But as they were returning on May 16, Sarah became feverish and later suffered severe sickness and diarrhoea.
Tests by her GP back home confirmed that she had contracted shigella, a form of food poisoning that comes from eating or drinking contaminated produce.
She continues to feel nauseous and still struggles to eat normally more than a month following the ordeal.
‘This was the first time I had travelled on my own with Halle and took a lot of courage to book in the first place, so I’m devastated by the way things have turned out,’ she said.
‘I had concerns about the food, including the number of animals around and flies on some of the dishes left out.
‘We always avoided these but there also seemed to be a lot of food brought back to life too, with ribs at lunchtime recycled in a rib curry at night, dishes like that.’
‘My GP said it was likely something from the holiday but I couldn’t believe it when I got a call from public health who said I had tested positive for shigella,’ she added.
Jatinder Paul, serious injury lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, said: ‘It’s deeply concerning that we have been instructed to act year after year.
‘Many of our clients have reported worryingly similar experiences and patterns that have left many of them seriously ill.
‘Our clients understandably have many questions of how they came to be so ill and why people are still being sent to the resort, when based on what we’re seeing, lessons don’t appear to have been learned from previous illness outbreaks among guests.’
have approached Riu Palace Santa Maria for comment.