British woman dies of malaria after holiday in Africa
A British businesswoman has died after contracting malaria following a trip to her holiday home in Gambia, Africa.
Jayne Rowley, from Lytham, died after suffering a seizure in Blackpool Victoria Hospital on Wednesday.
Her husband Martin is also being treated for the condition in the hospital.
Mr Rowley, who owns Carpets of Lytham, said the couple, who have two children, Victoria, 22, and James, 17, visited their holiday home in Gambia regularly, but rarely took anti-malaria tablets.
They had just returned from a 10-day stay in the Brufut area of the west African country when they started to feel ill, reports the Blackpool Gazette.
Speaking to the BBC, he said: "We go back and forward a few times a year. We got complacent. I would recommend nobody does this as we have learnt by our mistake."
He described the symptoms as "the worst case of flu you can experience", and said his wife started feeling ill on 19 November.
They went to hospital a few days later, and Jayne ended up in intensive care.
On Tuesday, he was warned his wife's condition would not improve, and the next day all of her organs began to fail.
According to the Daily Mail, she was visited by 35 friends and family members before she died.
Mr Rowley said: "She was just a lovely girl and a good mother to our children. I'm still in a state of shock - I'll never see her again.
"I don't think the children will cope with it, they're struggling."
Dr Lisa Ford, of The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, said only two people died of malaria in the UK last year.
Dr Ford added that malaria was treatable with early diagnosis, but said that people needed to take a full course of anti-malaria tablets when travelling to high-risk areas, like Gambia.
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