Journalist John Turner believes that advice about taking aspirin before a long air journey almost cost him his life.

John, who is a sub-editor with the Blackburn-based Citizen series of newspapers, decided to take the tablet before a four-hour holiday flight from Manchester to Cyprus following a barrage of publicity about the risk of suffering blood clots on long-haul flights.

Two days later, he was semi-conscious and on a drip in a hospital near the resort town of Protaras after losing several pints of blood because of a severe duodenal haemorrhage.

Doctors on the holiday island told him the bleeding was "probably caused" by the aspirin.

John (59) spent eight days in hospital before being allowed to fly home to Barnoldswick.

In an interview with Mark Templeton, a reporter on the Citizen's sister paper the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, John said he had listened to all the warnings about blood clotting during long haul flights and decided to take an aspirin - which thins the blood - as a preventative measure.

He explained: "After all, I thought, what harm can a little aspirin do?

"On the second night of our holiday, I was taken ill and rushed to hospital. That was when doctors told me it was probably the aspirin at the root of the problem.

"The little hospital in a comparatively remote part of eastern Cyprus was brilliant. There were only about a dozen beds, but I felt I was in good hands.

"They supplied a double room which also had a bed for my wife and, although I was unable to eat, she was fed like a queen.

"And at the end of our stay there seemed to be fewer chickens running about the yard next to the hospital.

"The health service in Cyprus was far less hassle than it seems to be in this country. Formalities were kept to a minimum. They were more interested in getting on with the treatment."

When he got back to England, John had to wait more than 24 hours to see his own GP and is currently waiting for a date for further tests in hospital.

Do you have a story for us?
Ring the HoldTheFrontPage newsdesk on
01332 291111 x6022, or to e-mail us now - click here