A GRANDMA is taking legal action against a tour operator after she suffered gastric illness so severe she was bedridden for four months.

Maureen Williams is among more than 60 holidaymakers who became ill at the Beach Club Torremolinos Hotel on the Costa del Sol in 2008.

She was admitted to hospital and blood tests later revealed that the 64-year-old had developed anaemia from the virus.

Court proceedings against travel company Thomson began last Thursday. Maureen, of Victoria Road, Wombwell, said: “As soon as I got to the hotel everything just felt wrong, completely different from other hotels I have stayed in.

“A couple of days in I started to feel unwell and the day before we flew home I was in agony with sickness and diarrhoea. I don’t know how I got myself home, the flight was terrible and once we were back home it was months before I could do anything.”

Maureen said she became concerned when weeks after the sickness stopped she had problems standing up.Doctors told her she had developed anaemia because of the severity of the gastric illness.

A Thompson spokesman said the Beach Club Hotel Torremolinos met its health and safety and hygiene criteria but it no longer features the hotel in its brochure.

“We acknowledge that Irwin Mitchell is representing a small number of customers who stayed there during 2008. However Thomson has not seen any evidence to suggest a link to the services provided at this hotel and there has been no diagnosis of any identifiable disease among those customers.”