AN EXPERIENCE of a lifetime turned to chaos for a man from Collingbourne Ducis after airline delays left him stranded, starving and worrying he would suffer an epileptic fit in Mumbai.

Neil Wheeler, 34, who works at RMW Services, was travelling back from Kathmandu after trekking to the Everest base camp for the Make a Wish Foundation, when he ran into troubles with his airline, turning his 17-day trip into a 20-day nightmare.

Mr Wheeler, who suffers from epilepsy, said: “The group arrived at the airport in Kathmandu at 5am before being told we would experience delays, we waited and waited for eight hours before we were taken back through security and told we would be put up in a hotel. We weren’t provided with food and we had no money as Kathmandu uses a closed currency.”

After staying in the hotel, Mr Wheeler and his group were told they had another flight the following day.

“We were 30 minutes into the flight before the pilot informed everyone we had to land due to a technical error. We were waiting until half 12 before we were told there was a problem and we would be put on a flight to Mumbai and we could be provided with a hotel and food.

“When we landed we couldn’t get passed security as we didn’t have a visa to enter India, and no flights were booked due to the amount of passengers so they couldn’t get us all on one plane, which was fine with me anyway,” added Mr Wheeler.

At this point Mr Wheeler was beginning to worry due to his epilepsy which is triggered by lack of sleep, food and becoming stressed.

“I hadn’t slept properly and hadn’t eaten in 20 hours, as you can imagine I was becoming very distressed too. I requested a doctor be brought to the airport to check me as I was running out of medication by this point.

“The first doctor said I should be okay, but after another few hours of waiting I felt like I needed a second check. At this point the second doctor checked my vitals and said that my blood sugar was so low I was at risk of a fit, if by magic I was then provided with food and juice to pick my levels back up,” said Mr Wheeler.

After finally getting his flight back to England, Mr Wheeler said that the experience of visiting Everest was ruined by his troubles with the airline.

“Overall the base camp experience was the best of my life but it was totally ruined by the stress and hassle from the airlines, it has put a really negative spin on what was supposed to be a once in a lifetime opportunity,” he said.

Jet Airways and Global Adventure were both unavailable for comment when contacted by the Gazette this week.