Brit awarded £26k from Thomas Cook after food poisoning at Egypt ‘death hotel’ says he’s reliving the horror after UK couple’s mystery deaths
A DAD awarded £26,000 from Thomas Cook after he and his family were left severely ill at an Egyptian hotel said he is reliving the horror after the mystery death of a British couple there last week.
Shakel Valu, from South Wales, told The Sun Online "it could have been us" as he touched on the deaths of John Cooper, 69, and his wife Susan, 64 — who also holidayed at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic hotel.
The 39-year-old, his partner Nazaneen Farzadneia, 31, and their two children, aged five and six, were struck down with vomiting and diarrhoea in 2016.
He said: "Looking at what's happened to (Mr and Mrs Cooper) has filled us with worry — what if it could have been us?
"Our thoughts are with the family. I lost my mum recently, but to loose both it must be absolutely unbelievable."
The dad added: "It kind of brings back all the anxiety that I was feeling when we were there.
"It was just a very tough period for us, where I've never experienced anything like that.
"For a parent, to see my girls going through that as well, that was almost worse.
"Some of the people that we got chatting to on our holiday were saying they had a dodgy stomach.
"It's just very sad and I wouldn't want anyone to experience it, whether it be just a stomach bug or losing a life - it's just completely crazy."
As they battled for compensation the family claimed the Thomas Cook failed to ensure food and drink at the Aqua Magic in Hurghada was “safe for human consumption”.
After a lengthy court battle they were awarded the compensation last month.
The business development consultant said: "It was such a poor holiday — we were sick the whole time.
"After we returned we were sick for a couple of months because the bug lingered.
"We contacted Thomas Cook and we were basically just told to go online and fill out the complaint form — they really weren't helpful.
"It was at that point that I decided just to go straight to my solicitors and they said we've got a case.
"It was dragged out over a two year period.
"Only in the last couple of months did the case go to court and thankfully we won."
The court case found the hotel allowed food to be “re-served or reused on more than one occasion” during their stay in April 2016, according to their claim.
Joanne Brine, a partner at JMW Solicitors who represented the South Wales family, said: "It's very sad to hear of the deaths of John and Susan Cooper on what should have been a happy family holiday, yet also incredibly concerning given our experience with this hotel in regards to hygiene standards."
A spokesperson for Thomas Cook said: "The safety and well-being of our customers is always our first priority and we would never send customers to a hotel which we do not believe to be safe.
"We audit all 3,000 of our core hotels every year and so far this calendar year we have removed 47 hotels for health and safety reasons and a further 150 which did not meet our strict quality criteria.
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"As well as the audits, our quality teams regularly inspect our properties and provide support, guidance and training to help hotels improve. We last audited Steigenberger Aqua Magic in July 2018."
Today we reported how the hotel has suddenly received a flurry of 5-star TripAdvisor reviews.
A number of positive posts about the Steigenberger Aqua Magic appeared this week from what appear to be new accounts, amid the fallout from UK guests revelations they had hellish holidays there.
The Sun also told how a Brit whose "fit and healthy" wife died on a Thomas Cook holiday in Egypt said her death has haunting similarities to a tragic couple who passed away last week.
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