SISTERS who stayed in the hotel where a Burnley couple died at the end of August were crawling around their bedroom floor in agony days after they arrived at the resort.

Healthcare workers Melissa Nuttall, 29, and Anne Marie McCaffrey, 33, cut short their 14-night stay at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in July after they both fell cripplingly ill.

The sisters, from Rishton, arrived at the hotel in the seaside resort of Hurghada on July 17 and by the 21st they were both bedbound with painful stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea.

On returning to the UK a week early, a sample provided by Ms Nuttall tested positive for the salmonella bacteria, which is common in contaminated food.

Ms McCaffrey said: “When the illness first started we could manage to sit by the pool but soon we were confined to our bedroom.

“I’ve never felt so ill in my life and all I wanted to do was go home. We still can’t figure out what happened as we didn’t notice anything particularly bad about anything we ate or drank, there were no obvious signs about what caused the illness.”

The sisters said when they complained to the Thomas Cook representative and said they wanted flights home, he told them there were no flights and that they would ‘just have to go to the doctor’.

Ms McCaffrey said: “We went to the pharmacy inside the hotel and they gave us some tablets.

“When we Googled what they were we found out they were antibiotics and they’d given them to everyone who had fallen ill at the hotel – there were so many ill people and were just given these packets of antibiotics from the in-hotel pharmacy.

“The hotel then tried to offer us an upgrade but we felt so poorly that we just wanted to get home, which we did eventually.”

The sudden deaths of John Cooper, 69, and his wife Susan, 63, of Burnley, who were staying at the Steigenberger hotel are still being investigated with the results of autopsies expected soon.

Despite safely returning home from their trip, the sisters are still experiencing the after-effects of illness.

Ms McCaffrey said: “Melissa is still testing positive for salmonella and we’ve both had to take time off work.

“The news about the couple from Burnley who died at the hotel is tragic but we’re sorry to say it has not surprised us to hear.

“Before we heard the news I contacted Thomas Cook to complain about our trip and I said to the advisor on the phone that somebody could get seriously ill or even die here, there’s something not right.”

The pair consulted with a solicitor around three weeks after they returned in a bid to get some compensation.

Ms McCaffrey said: “I’d saved up all year for the trip. Between Melissa and I we have five children and it was supposed to be a nice trip away for the two of us as my children were away with their dad at the time.

“We’d looked forward to it for so long.”

Michael Walker, solicitor and director of Holiday Claims Bureau, a division of Manchester solicitors JPS Walker, who are dealing with the sisters' case, said: “Food and general hygiene standards at this particular hotel have been the subject of many illness claims handled by our solicitors over the last few years, not just in recent months.

“Given the circumstances, we would urge anyone returning from the hotel who has been affected to seek appropriate medical attention and report any illnesses within their party to Thomas Cook, as well as obtain independent legal advice.”

A Thomas Cook spokesperson said: “The safety and wellbeing of our customers is always our first priority. That’s why we removed 300 customers from the Steigenberger Aqua Magic hotel after receiving further reports of illness last week.

"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. 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. We are contacting every Thomas Cook customer that has returned from staying at the hotel since 22 August and we have put a dedicated team together to prioritise all complaints from this hotel."