British woman in wheelchair after snake bite on Turkey holiday

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A British woman is temporarily in need of a wheelchair after being bitten by a snake while on holiday in Turkey.

Laura Brasher, from Needingworth, Cambridgeshire, was on her way to enjoy the last family dinner of the holiday in Dalyan, Turkey, when she came across a metre-long Ottoman viper in the road.

Being terrified of snakes, the mum-of-four tried to get away from the reptile, but just when she thought it had disappeared, it attacked.

The 46-year-old told Cambridgeshire News: "I have a phobia of snakes – I even shriek when I see them on TV – so obviously I was terrified. We ran back in the other direction and screamed and shouted to try and scare it off.

"Eventually we calmed down and the snake seemed to have disappeared, so we started back towards the villa, but I hadn't taken more than five steps when my daughter's friend started screaming: 'Snake! snake!'

"The pain was so intense that I couldn't walk on my leg. My daughter's friend called my husband, who contacted a local friend, and within 20 minutes I was receiving treatment at a Turkish hospital."

Mrs Brasher, who works as an assistant special needs co-ordinator at a school in St Ives, was discharged from hospital with pain relief medication and was later referred to Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, for checks.

Faced with the prospect of several weeks on the sofa, the hospital told her about the British Red Cross medical loan service, which has provided her with a wheelchair that, she says, is making a "huge difference to me during my recovery".

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