A British woman taken desperately ill while cruising to Bermuda was last night stranded on the Island while her distraught family tried to raise the $89,000 necessary to airlift her home for surgery. Sheila Hollinghurst, 54, was left fighting for her life after suffering an aneurysm in her brain on Sunday while on board the travelling from Boston.

Mrs. Hollinghurst, who does not have medical insurance, was rushed to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital (KEMH) upon arrival on the Island on Monday and was in the Intensive Care Unit there last night.

Her family in Manchester, England, have been told by staff at KEMH that they need to send Mrs. Hollinghurst for essential neurosurgery in the USA, but that no hospital there will take her due to her lack of insurance.

The only alternative is for her to be flown back to the UK with a specialist medical team to care for her during the journey, which will cost ?50,000 ? approximately $89,000.

Her distressed daughter, Amanda Turner, told that she does not know how her family will be able to raise the cash. ?We are desperate ? we need our mum to come home to receive the correct treatment,? she said, speaking from her Manchester home.

?The British Consulate has said that there is no funding to fly her back. It?s incredibly difficult to raise ?50,000 and every time we have a glimmer of hope, it fades.

?I have been trying to get a bank loan, but because I don?t own any property, I can only get ?3,000. I just need to get her home. We have been told that the next 24 to 36 hours are critical for my mother, and at the moment I feel like we have got nowhere else to turn.?

Mrs. Hollinghurst, a grandmother of six, was on the cruise with her sister Jean Cannon, from Boston, when she was taken ill. Ms Cannon was last night at her hospital bedside.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Turner spent Monday and Tuesday ringing the Foreign Office, Members of Parliament and media organisations in the UK but was unsuccessful in finding anyone that could help her.

?The hospital staff at KEMH have already been incredible. Now we just need something else incredible to happen, and someone to help us,? she said.

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London said that the predicament faced by the family is not unusual.

?One of our main messages to British nationals who travel overseas is that they should get travel insurance, even for short trips, as you never know when you could get taken ill,? he said. ?I sympathise with the situation that this family is in, but it is our long-standing policy that we do not pay for medical repatriation.?