Downing a shot in Zante made me wake up BLIND… terrifying rise of deadly knock-off booze plaguing Brit holiday hotspots

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Collage of a woman recounting a friend's hospitalization after a girls' trip.

HANNAH Powell was just an ordinary 20-year-old girl from Middlesbrough when she headed to the Greek island of Zante for a girls’ trip with some of her closest mates.

Three nights into their holiday, they were out enjoying the local clubs and bars like any other group of young Brits.

Woman in hospital bed wearing oxygen mask.

Hannah Powell woke up blind after accidentally drinking spirits laced with toxic methanol while on holiday in Zante[/caption]

But after they returned from their night out, Hannah’s life changed forever overnight – because she had unknowingly drunk spirits contaminated with deadly methanol.

It wasn’t until the next morning that she first realised something was wrong.

“I woke up and was just laying in bed chatting. We were deciding what we were doing today, then I said, ‘Should we open the curtains?’ We were just sat there in the dark,” she tells The Sun.

But the curtains were open, and the room was filled with daylight.

Hannah, in fact, had gone blind.

“My friends were like, the curtains are already open,” she said.

“I just thought they were joking, being lazy and not wanting to get up.

“So I got up to do it, and remembered feeling the glass and thinking, oh no, they are open. And then I just felt panic.”

What Hannah didn’t realise at the time was that she had been drinking spirits and cocktails mixed together with methanol, a highly toxic form of alcohol normally used to make antifreeze.

Ordinary booze is sometimes cut with the cheap chemical to increase profits for dodgy suppliers, with hikes in alcohol taxes leading unscrupulous bar owners to take desperate – and dangerous – measures.

Chillingly, methanol can be indistinguishable from the spirit it’s been mixed into because it’s both colourless and smells similar to alcohol.

Thousands around the world are poisoned every year, and terrifyingly, as little as 30ml of the substance – just over a standard shot – is enough to be fatal.

In November, six travellers – including Brit lawyer Simone White – died at a hostel in Laos, while six more Brits were reported to have been hospitalised.

And on Boxing Day, Welsh tourist Greta Otteson and her fiance Arno Quinton were found dead in their hotel room in Vietnam after drinking contaminated “homemade” limoncello they had ordered from a local restaurant.

Bootleg boom

For Hannah, not only was she unable to see, but she began to feel increasingly delirious as her kidneys started to shut down during her horrific 2016 ordeal.

“I remember being in the back of the van, being moved between hospitals,” she says.

“I still didn’t know I was blind, and I was delirious by this point, because of my kidneys.

“I remember thinking I had been kidnapped and had something wrapped round my face, but it was actually just my eyesight.”

Woman being escorted by two people down a hospital corridor.

Once back home, she began a long road to recovery that eventually saw her receive a kidney from her mum, Christine[/caption]

Hannah pictured on holiday with her friends[/caption]

Hannah, now 29 and working as a receptionist at a doctor’s surgery, is far from the only Brit to have been struck by methanol poisoning abroad.

Zante – despite its popularity with tourists – has long been a hotspot for bootleg booze.

In 2018, a group of 17 British teens were rushed to hospital when they fell ill after visiting a string of bars on the Greek party island.

Some, however, had no more than three drinks – leading them to believe that their spirits had been tainted with the deadly chemical.

Following the revelation, a Sun investigation found positive traces of methanol in bootleg vodka for sale in one of the town’s bars.

What we see is likely only the tip of the iceberg

Dr Hovda

But Zante is just one of many methanol hotspots that can be found around the world.

Nearby Turkey has recently been struggling with the substance after huge rises in alcohol taxes caused more and more people to resort to making moonshine.

The situation in the country is so serious that some have warned it’s only a matter of time before someone is served methanol in a high-end restaurant.

January saw at least 33 people die with dozens more hospitalised around holiday hotspot Istanbul.

It follows the deaths of at least 37 people across November and December last year.

Yet despite the huge number of deaths in Turkey, South East Asia remains the methanol poisoning capital of the world and sees hundreds of deaths every year.

In Indonesia, a largely Muslim country, a strong taboo against alcohol leads to many making their own moonshine, which can easily become contaminated with methanol.

Dodgy vendors also top up spirits with cheap methanol before selling it on, just to make some extra cash.

It then makes its way into the supply chains, providing booze to tourist hotspots such as Bali.

Brit Kirsty McKie, 38, was taken ill the day after consuming the toxic substance in Bali in 2022, and died in hospital from methanol poisoning on July 24 that year.

Meanwhile, in Thailand in 2019, grandmother Janet West was celebrating New Year and experienced severe disorientation after consuming ‘spiked’ booze, leading her to wander around naked for hours.

“I was lucky to survive and to have no side effects but I’m frightened to drink the local spirits in Thailand now,” she said.

“The local alcohol is not distilled properly and, although it’s cheap, it’s not worth the risk – stick to imported spirits or bottled beer.”

Simone White, a British tourist hospitalized after methanol poisoning in Laos.

Brit Simone White was one of six tourists in a Laos hostel who died from methanol poisoning in November 2024[/caption]

Woman holding a glass of champagne, wearing a floral top and denim skirt.

One of the deadliest incidents of methanol poisoning occurred in India, when at least 168 people were killed and more than 500 affected in February 2019 after drinking toxic bootleg booze.

Around the world, countries such as Russia and Mexico have also seen mass-poisoning caused by methanol.

Dr Knut Erik Hovda is the leading international expert on methanol poisoning, and explained to The Sun the ways in which it can occur.

“It is most likely based on profit reasons,” he explained.

“Methanol is cheaper than regular alcohol, as it is available in huge quantities for industrial purposes.

“In some markets, where alcohol is less available because of cultural or religious banning, this may also be an alternative to sell where other alcohol is hard to get hold of.

“In some areas the alcohol is cheaper but the average income is also low.

“In some areas alcohol is not accepted, and the market will therefore turn into illegal sources.”

A road roller crushing confiscated alcohol bottles.

Bottles of alcohol are destroyed by steamroller in Indonesia[/caption]

Indonesian police officers in orange shirts and balaclavas display suspects arrested for producing and selling illegal alcohol.

Suspects arrested for producing and selling illegal homemade alcohol are paraded by Indonesian police in April 2018[/caption]

Nonetheless, despite the thousands of deaths that occur annually, the true scale of the problem is unknown, Dr Hovda added.

“The general knowledge in the public – and the health sector – is somewhat limited, and so what we see is likely only the tip of the iceberg.”

Horror aftermath

While some of Hannah’s friends felt ill, none were affected as badly as she was.

Transferred first to a hospital on the island and then one on the mainland, upon her return to the UK she began the long road to recovery – although her life would still be changed forever.

Hannah had to undergo four hours of dialysis every day for 18 months, until she received a kidney transplant from her mum.

Meanwhile, Hannah pinned hopes on the slow but steady improvement in her vision – though it remains foggy and she is still registered blind.

“At first I got through it because they told me the swelling behind my eyes would go down,” she said.

“So then you’re living in hope for the next couple of weeks.

“It was completely black at first, but over the next couple of weeks, bits did come back. So every day I was working off that and thinking this wouldn’t be forever.

“I’m registered blind, because it’s still that bad. But to me, it’s good compared to what it could have been,” Hannah added.

It has nothing, no telltale signs. It’s like Russian roulette

Hannah

Despite the challenges that come with being blind, she said she “absolutely” still lives life to the full.

“Probably more so – I feel like you realise how quick everything can change,” she added.

“All I can do is tell people of the dangers, but there’s nothing to avoid. It has no smell, it has no colour. It has nothing, no telltale signs. It’s like Russian roulette.

“I want people to be aware of it, but there’s not a lot you can do to avoid it.

“It’s sort of an invisible act, there’s just places that are rife for it. I would advise people to not drink in those places, it’s just not worth it.”