Family of Midlothian mum left fighting for life after Tenerife fall 'desperate' to fly her home

The family of a mother who remains in a critical condition in a Tenerife hospital have revealed they are “desperate” to get her back to Scotland.

Julie McLaren, the mother of Hibs player Siobhan Hunter, remains in a critical condition after an aneurysm burst in her brain and she collapsed down a set of stairs.

The 57-year-old, from Dalkeith in Midlothian, underwent emergency brain surgery on January 8 and was put into an induced coma at a hospital in the Canary Islands after the accident left her with fractures to her skull and bleeds on her brain.

Hunter and her sister Georgi launched a GoFundMe in an effort to raise money to help family members stay on the island with Ms McLaren as she undergoes treatment.

Nearly £50,000 has been raised for the mother, and the family have issued a further plea on social media, revealing they are “desperate” to get her home within the next two days.

Her daughter, Georgi, said: “We appreciate each and every donation made so far, and we can’t believe the generosity that has been shown to our family, it’s above and beyond what we had hoped for. However, our mum is still critical and the update from the Spanish doctors in the last couple of days has not been good.

“The language barrier is extremely challenging for us all. They are so strict with visiting hours and who visits. We are only allowed two people at any time so we are not all able to visit her together.

“This is hard for us as we are trying to comfort each other. We only receive one daily update in broken English most of the time. We are so confused. One doctor will say one thing and another will tell us something else. We really don’t want to ask any more of you all, unfortunately we have no other option.

“We need to get our mum back to the UK ASAP. We need to get her on an air ambulance within the next 48 hours and the cheapest we could get is 40k and we just don’t have that amount.

“We have had to spend some of the GoFundMe raised to enable us to stay in Tenerife with our mum so we need to raise a further £10k and would appreciate your help to make this happen. We are desperate to get our mum home and the only way we can do this is with your help.

“There is no way we can possibly thank people enough.”

You can donate to the GoFundMe here.