A backpacker whose best friend died after she was fatally poisoned by a drink in Laos has called for schools to teach children about the dangers of bootleg alcohol.
Simone White, 28, was one of six tourists who died after a mass methanol poisoning at a hostel bar in Vang Vieng, Laos, last November.
Ms White, a solicitor from southeast London, died from a bleed on the brain after unwittingly being poisoned by free vodka shots at the Nana Backpackers Hostel nine days earlier.
Racked with survivor’s guilt, her travel companion Bethany Clarke, also 28, is now campaigning for all teenagers to be taught the dangers of methanol poisoning.
‘I really don’t want her death to be in vain. We didn’t know anything about methanol poisoning. Having spoken to all our friends and family, not many people actually had heard of it before it affected us,’ Ms Clarke told The Times.
Ms Clarke and Ms White, who were friends from the age of four at primary school in Orpington, Kent, fell ill the day after drinking between five and six free shots which they mixed with Sprite.
Five other guests who were staying at the hostel also died after drinking the same shots.
Ms Clarke, who spent five days in hospital but survived, has launched a campaign for the dangers of bootleg alcohol to be taught in PSHE and biology lessons.
Her petition, titled ‘Put the dangers of methanol poisoning on the school curriculum’ has nearly 3,000 signatures.
She said ‘five minutes in a class’ could be crucial, adding: ‘When you’re young, you’re told all about heroin, cocaine, all of that, but you’re not really told about this: something more common, that is possibly going to affect you when you travel to another country. You assume it will be regulated but it’s not.’
Ms Clarke said they definitely would have been more cautious had they been aware of the risks.
‘There’s just no way we would have ever known that we could end up in a coma from drinking vodka in Laos,’ she said.
Ms White’s mother, Sue, flew out to be by her daughter’s side as doctors performed brain surgery.
But in the end, Mrs White has to switch off her daughter’s life support machine as doctors said they could not to due to their Buddhist faith.
Before she died, Ms Clarke rang around friends to collect goodbye message voice notes for Ms White. She played them next to her best friend’s ear so she could hear it before she passed.
Drinking even a small amount of methanol can be extremely dangerous. Just two teaspoons could make a person go blind and a single shot could be enough to kill you.
Symptoms are often delayed for up to 48 hours and can cause coma, convulsions, blindness, nervous system damage and death.
Methanol poisoning is a little-known risk present in many parts of the world with criminal gangs sneaking it into replicas of well-known spirit brands which can then be served at bars in cocktails.
The other victims in Laos were 57-year-old American James Huston, two 19-year-old n girls – Holly Morton-Bowles and Bianca Jone – and Danish friends Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, and Freja Sorensen, 21.