A family paid tribute to their 'salt of the earth' dad after he tragically dropped dead in front of his horrified wife on a Hawaiian cruise.
John Thompson, 74, was visiting Honolulu on a luxury holiday with his wife when he fell ill during a meal and collapsed.
Emergency services were called and worked frantically on John before he was rushed to hospital for further treatment, but medics were unable to revive him.
His grieving family has now been told they face medical bills in the region of £30,000 after issues were raised with his travel insurance.
John's son Dale Thompson, of Burnhope in County Durham, said: "On the day of travel my dad must have noticed there was not something not right with the insurance once they were through customs.
"It said they were covered until the 2nd and not the 22nd but why would they only need three days of cover.
"I spoke to my parents and said to just take it easy on holiday and not exert themselves so they wouldn't break a leg or sprain an ankle. Dad has always had health issues but nobody was expecting this to happen."
In addition, the family will need to stump up a further £5,000 for funeral costs to have John cremated and flown home - leading them to set up a fundraiser to pay towards the costs.
A GoFundMe page set up by daughter-in-law Becky Thompson has currently raised £3,627 of a £5,000 goal.
Dale said: "We are raising money to put towards the medical cost and funeral costs to get dad cremated and returned to the UK.
"We are hoping that will be in the next four to six weeks."
They are also raising money for the Visitor Aloha Society after they provided vital support to Eileen in Hawaii after her husband's death, with Becky saying the charity "were there when we couldn’t be".
The family has now planned a memorial celebrating John's life on April 28 in Bradford, where he lived.
Reflecting on his father's memory, his son said: "He was just a right salt of the earth guy.
"He would talk to anyone, he was the guy who always asked the taxi driver if they had been busy."
