We boarded the plane and were sat a few rows from the front. After a short while we noticed a young woman in the front row leaning over the aisle to attend to an older man and at the same time a passenger in another seat was alerting the stewardess to the to the now clearly unwell passenger.

It turned out he was her father who’s name was Sam (Samuel)

Sam had the appearance of continually fainting and she was attempting to keep him awake.

After a period of a few minutes the stewardess announced that due to his condition she would not be continuing with the drinks service until she had attended to him.

It was at this point that everyone on the plane became aware of the total lack of conversation and apart from engine noise total silence.

This activity had taken place in less than 10 minutes.

Over the PA system the stewardess asked ‘THE’ question ‘was their a doctor or a nurse on board’.

It seamed no one on the aircraft moved for a long time; in fact it can only have been a few seconds.

The stewardess stood to the side of Sam with her back to the rest of the passengers.

I told Carol that I would check with the stewardess if there were anything I could do to help. As my offer of help (and the fact that I was a Firefighter from the UK) left my lips I could sense and see the relief on the stewardess face.

Almost instantaneously I found myself in front of Sam medical Oxygen in one hand a first aid kit in the other administering first aid.

I spent most of the remainder of the flight which seemed to last forever in a cold sweat. At one point the stewardess asked me if I thought the pilot needed to divert the plane and my cold sweat turned into a hot sweat.

Sam remained conscious for the remainder of the flight. It turned out he had several medical conditions resulting from a previous heart attack and was taking numerous medicines and drugs to compensate and regulate his condition. As we landed Sam improved and it was suspected that the pressurised interior of the aircraft was the cause of the problem.

We landed in Toronto and I spent the first 2 hours of our visit to Canada filling in medical forms for the paramedics.

We spent the remainder of our time in the airport almost in silence and both Carol and I heaved a huge sigh of relief as we left the airport. We needed a holiday.

We originally had the idea to chill out at our house and during our stay visit other parts of Florida.

After Carol had done her flight costing routine with the Internet she concluded that it would be cheaper for us to do a hop and stop than it would be to fly from Manchester direct to Orlando. It worked out £40 each cheaper.

When Carol had finished she presented me with the following itinerary.

Depart Manchester airport direct to JFK airport, New York. Stop over 3 nights.

We booked a room in the Metro hotel one block away from the empire State building.

Depart JFK, New York, direct to Toronto, Canada. Pick up hire car drive to Niagara Falls. Stop over 2 nights.

The Marriott hotel at Niagara Falls (16th floor) directly over looked the falls.

Depart Vancouver, direct to Miami, Florida, Stop over one night.

Pick up rental car drive to Islamorada Key, Florida. Stop over 2 nights.

Ragged edge resort motel, overlooking the Atlantic.

Drive to West coast stop over one night in Naples. The biggest bed we have ever slept in.

Drive to our house10 night’s chill out.

Fly home from Orlando airport direct to Manchester airport.

I briefly thought (for about 0.01 of a second) that I should point out that the additional costs we would have staying in the hotels ‘we’ had chosen would far our weigh any savings we would make on our flights. However I could see Carol was now in full flight making the arrangements so I thought if I wanted to reach our 26th wedding anniversary I had better keep my thoughts to myself. After she had finished making reservations at hotels, booking flights and renting cars we could barely contain ourselves. The thought of us visiting and seeing some of the ‘must see’s’ in life in one holiday was beyond belief.

When we made our plans, decided what we would do and were we would visit we anticipated that all might not go as planned and alterations to our itinerary may be encountered. It turned out fate had some additional items on our agenda which proved to be every bit as memorable for very different reasons.

I can highly recommend a hop and stop holiday. For us it was totally exhausting but the sights; experiences and memories will stay with us forever.

Brian Pearson