The family of a 23-year-old British backpacker who died after consuming poisonous alcohol sold as gin in Indonesia has pledged to raise awareness of the dangers of methanol, to prevent more travellers being killed by toxic drinks.
A picture of 23-year-old Cheznye Emmons taken from a Facebook page raising money in her memory. The British backpacker died in Indonesia after drinking methanol sold as gin. Her family have vowed to educate other travellers about the risks associated with buying poisoned "fake" alcohol in the country.
Cheznye Emmons, a beauty therapist who had been travelling through Indonesia with her boyfriend Joe Cook, fell ill after drinking from a bottle labelled as gin, bought at a shop in the popular tourist spot of Bukit Lawang in northern Sumatra.
The couple and a third male traveller all became sick after ingesting the contaminated drink.
Emmons lost her sight and had to trek through the jungle to the nearest eye clinic, where she was referred to a hospital and put into an induced coma.
Her parents flew to her bedside in Sumatra, but made the decision to turn off her life support five days later, after being informed that their daughter stood no chance of recovery.
The backpacker’s father, Brenton Emmons, told the Sun newspaper: “Cheznye was the apple of my eye, my little girl and I’m never going to see her again. I would not want anyone to go through what we have.”
Her sisters Measha and Bianca added: “We don’t want this to happen to anyone else. Chez wouldn’t have wanted to die in vain.”
According to the Guardian, her brother Michael, said: “We're all just in shock. From what we understand, the shop poured the gin out of the original bottle and then replaced it with methanol. It was in the original bottle with the gin label on it. As far as we're aware, the shop has been shut and there's a police investigation.”
The beauty salon where the 23-year-old used to work has meanwhile set up a memorial fund in Cheznye's name.
The Briton is the latest victim in a spate of methanol deaths in Indonesia.
In February 19-year-old Australian Liam Davies died after he drank vodka laced with methanol, while Swede Johan Lundin, 28, was killed by a cocktail contaminated with methanol In June last year.
In 2009, 25 people died in Indonesia after drinking a local palm wine spike with the chemical.
Alcoholic drinks contain pure alcohol, or ethanol, not methanol. But the high cost of imported alcohol in Indonesia has led to rogue manufacturers producing illegal "fake" alcohol using methanol.
Methanol is highly toxic and used in the manufacture of products including anti-freeze. Poisoning from the chemical can cause blindness, coma, kidney failure and death.