'My mum had a heart attack by the pool in Morocco, then I was told to pay £20k'

The family of a former pub landlady stuck in hospital in Morocco has issued a desperate plea for help.

Colette Robinson, of Stalybridge, Tameside, was rushed to hospital on Tuesday (February 11) after falling ill by the hotel pool in Marrakesh. Her family says it later emerged the 58-year-old mum-of-four and gran-of-seven had suffered a heart attack.

Her son Jack Gilder says she is now recovering at the city's Averroes hospital after undergoing emergency surgery to have a stent fitted. Jack said: "She was sat round the pool and started vomiting. They got the hotel nurse and then a doctor and she was taken to hospital in an ambulance.

"She had a stent fitted and they did an angiogram. I managed to Facetime her this morning and she seemed really run down and because she takes blood thinners she's got bruises all over her."

Jack, 30, says his mum, who used to run the Trafalgar and The Ladysmith pubs in Ashton, now faces a £20,000 bill for her care. She had insurance, but Jack fears she failed disclose a previous heart attack when booking the policy, meaning the company is refusing to cover her treatment.

Ms Robinson, who was on a 10 day holiday with a friend, was due to fly home tomorrow (Friday). But Jack says doctors have told her she has to stay in hospital until at at least Tuesday, when it's hoped she will be well enough to travel back to the UK. Jack has shared the appeal with the Manchester Evening News with his mother's permission.

But in the meantime the family have made a desperate appeal to help pay her medical bills. Jack, who has set up a gofundme page to try raise the money, said: "I spoke to the hospital and asked for leniency so we could pay it off gradually, but they refused. I can't just get my hands on