A British man who went blind after suffering from methanol poisoning while travelling in Laos has described the moments before he lost his sight.
Calum Macdonald was one of a number of tourists who fell victim to a mass methanol poisoning in the popular tourist destination of Vang Vieng, Laos last year.
The group had been drinking at a hostel they were staying, where free alcoholic drinks thought to be tainted with methanol were offered to guests.
Six people in the group died, while Mr Macdonald, 23, lost his sight.
Methanol poisonings occur in a wide range of locations across the globe, often in resorts popular with travellers. It is a type of alcohol normally found in cleaning products and fuel, but because it is tasteless and has only a faint smell, it is impossible to tell if a drink is contaminated.
Mr Macdonald noticed issues with his sight when he arrived in Vietnam the day after drinking at the hostel, where he mixed the free whisky with soft drinks.
“I remember having this sort of kaleidoscopic, blinding light in my eyes and to the point at which I couldn’t see anything,” he told BBC Breakfast.
“[We agreed] it was strange but we thought it was food poisoning and the light I was seeing was some kind of sensitivity.”
However, when he and his friends arrived at their hotel in Vietnam, he realised something was wrong when he asked them to turn the lights on when they already were.
He said: “We were sitting in the hotel room, my friends and I, and I said to them: ‘Why are we sitting in the dark? Someone should turn a light on.'”
He advised tourists to avoid accepting free drinks and spirits in south east Asia, saying: “There are lots of lovely beers in south-east Asia, which I’m sure people would really enjoy.”
Another British woman, Simone White, also stayed and drank at the Nana Backpacker Hostel the day after Calum left.
The 28-year-old lawyer from London was one of the victims who died after suffering from methanol poisoning.
Simone’s mother, Sue White, has campaigned for greater awareness of the risks of methanol poisoning since the death of her daughter.
Two Danish women also died after drinking at the hostel. Mr Macdonald knew the pair and said learning of their deaths changed his perspective on his blindness.
“Part of the way that I [had] dealt with it was to bury my head in the sand… I did really feel like, in many ways, my life wasn’t worth living,” he told the BBC.
He is now working with families of other British people who died following methanol poisoning in south east Asia, calling for the Foreign Office to be clearer about the dangers in countries where it is a concern.
He said: “[The deaths] made me realise that I was very lucky and I felt very grateful that, although I had some difficult consequences, a lot of people did have it worse.
“I felt, given that I was lucky enough to survive, I have a bit of a responsibility to try and prevent the same thing from happening to other people.”
