19-05-2025
Traveller who survived alcohol poisoning in Laos campaigns to get issue added to school curriculum
A woman who survived alcohol poisoning in Laos which killed six backpackers, including her friend, said travellers heading abroad this Summer should be aware of the dangers as she campaigned to get issue added to the school curriculum.
Bethany Clarke was taken to hospital after allegedly being served drinks laced with methanol in the popular backpacking town of Vang Vieng last year.
Her best friend Simone White, 28, from Orpington died and the government in Laos said it was "profoundly saddened".
Speaking to ITV News London Bethany called on the government to do more to educate teenagers in schools about the dangers of drinking alcohol abroad.
"For me it's what happens when I'm dead - is this message going to still be delivered in 100 years time?" Bethany told ITV News London.
"History has this thing of repeating itself so I guess the idea of all of this is to try and make sure it's in the curriculum so that no one has to go through this again in the future," she explained.
Bethany started an online campaign hoping to force a debate in the Commons on whether the dangers of methanol poisoning should be put on the school curriculum.
"We're just going to keep going - the petition will expire in October so we're just going to keep pushing, trying to get the message out as much as we can," she added.
The government has added methanol poisoning to the list of risks in some countries on its travel advice website.
In Laos it says Tiger Vodka and Tiger Whiskey - the spirits the hostel is believed to have served that night - are now Foreign Office advice on its Travel Aware Instagram page is to "stick to sealed drinks".
But Bethany wants a stronger message delivered to children at a younger age.
She said: "Maybe some kind of reenactment with a film would be quite useful.
"Those videos you used to get in school of watching the car crashes and things like that.
"I remember them being quite scary at the time and they come back to you many years later - so it just sticks in your head.
"And I think that's what we need sometimes, something similar to that."
The hostel owner has previously denied shots given at their bar were responsible for the poisoning.
Bethany said they ordered five or six shots each over the course of two-and-a-half hours and said the drinks did not taste as strong as she expected, then they started to feel unwell the next day.
She described feeling tired and "just not really being able to move the muscles that you want to move when you want to move them".
When Simone started being sick, and Bethany fainted, their friend suggested they go to hospital.
