Dream holiday ruined after kids left with severe burns while wearing factor 50

A dream holiday turned into a nightmare for a mum whose young sons were left in agony after being badly burnt despite wearing factor 50 suncream.

Newport mum Carlien Pretorius was on holiday in Gran Canaria with her boys for just a few hours when she noticed they had started to burn.

Joshua, 11, and Luke, nine, were in t-shirts and had SPF (sun protection factor) 50 applied to their skin, but Joshua’s burns became so bad that Carlien decided to take photos and post them on social media.

The sun cream came from a shop on the island labelled 'parafarmacia', said Carlien, but after the burns became so bad she returned to the shop to spend a total of €110 (£95) for ointment to put on their skin.

However, she said this only made things worse, so she went to the the surgery where she was given free advice.

Carlien said she blames the shop which sold her the sun cream on the island and herself for “not being able to protect my kids from this horrible thing happening to them”.

She said she was shocked that her boys burnt from just being in the swimming pool despite having full 50+ sunscreen on and T-shirts.

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Carlien added that the sun cream could have been either out of date, or the wrong cream for their ages.

“Both of them were in a lot of pain and I had to give them Calpol regularly which I thankfully had brought with me from the UK," she told WalesOnline.

"Joshua especially was in absolute agony. I’m so grateful to the public doctors for the free advice from our EHIC (European Health Insurance Card) cards

“We will always remember this holiday disaster and probably be reminded of it for the rest of our lives through the possible scarring.”

After spending a large proportion of their holiday flicking through Spanish TV channels in their hotel room, Carlien said she feels she needs to offer advice to others planning on going abroad to a hot climate.

She added: “It was disastrous really because we had to spend five or six days of our two-week annual holiday in a hot apartment with nothing to do. We couldn’t go swimming or go out because I desperately needed to keep them out of the sun.

“My advice would be; take your sunscreen with you from the UK, take Calpol for the kids and all other meds from the UK, stay out of the sun between 12pm and 4pm, take your EHIC cards when holidaying abroad, and double check all advice – even the small print on products – when in a foreign country.”

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