Desperate plea to help sick grandfather stranded in the Far East
THE family of a man seriously ill in hospital in the Philippines are appealing for help to get him home safe and well.
Robert Webb is desperately ill in hospital in Palawan and is unable to speak or move his limbs.
Now the 64-year-old’s family need to raise at least £21,000 to pay for urgent medical treatment as Bob, as most people know him, went to the Philippines without any travel insurance.
Friends and family have already sent out £3,000 to cover his medical fees.
Bob, a retired builder from Buckland in Portsmouth, went to the islands in the middle of May to see his wife, Jennifer, whom he married last year.
He went over to help sort out her visa. The trip had been going well until Bob suddenly collapsed while doing some gardening.
Bob was admitted to hospital with pneumonia and a suspected stroke.
He was later diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a serious condition affecting the nervous system.
Bob needs an expensive course of treatment that requires 16 jabs a day.
Bob’s son Mark and daughter-in-law Kelly have started a fundraising page and raised more than £1,500 in the last eight days.
A fundraiser is planned at Park Community School in Leigh Park this weekend.
The family have been talking to Bob via a videocam, but he cannot speak back.
Kelly said it was heartbreaking.
‘Every time we speak to him, I have four kids watching and he’s their granddad,’ said Kelly, of Norden Way, Leigh Park.
‘Every time we see him, Mark chokes up.
‘My six-year-old Mason asks “Is grandad home yet?”.
‘When Charlie, my three-year-old, says “hello granddad”, you see Bob’s eyes well up.’
Kelly said Bob had taken travel insurance on two previous trips to the Philippines and no-one knows why he did not do it this time. His wife Jennifer is constantly by his bedside.
The fundraiser takes place between 11am and 3pm on Sunday at Park Community School and there will be tattoo stalls, ice-creams, sweet stalls and fire engines. To donate visit gofundme.com/285qtkk