A MAN tortured by memories of agonising surgery without anaesthetic has joined a North-East campaign to persuade holidaymakers to boycott Greece.

Nigel Race described as "torture" his treatment at the hands of Greek hospital staff after what should have been a routine operation on a cut wrist turned into a nightmare.

Mr Race, from Chester-le-Street, County Durham, says he has never had an explanation or apology from Greek authorities.

He has joined forces with the parents of another Chester-le-Street man, Chris Rochester, who died in a Greek hospital in 2000, along with North Durham MP Kevan Jones and MEP Stephen Hughes, to urge holidaymakers to boycott Greece.

Mr Race, 30, said: "I had only been on Rhodes Island for two hours when I tripped up and cut my hand on a wine bottle.

"When I eventually got to Rhodes Hospital the doctor in the operating theatre said in broken English: 'I haven't got time to let the anaesthetic work - this is gonna hurt, a lot'.

"They cut my wrist open further and started pulling my broken tendons."

He claims he was then sent to the main hospital in Athens, on the Greek mainland, because Rhodes did not have a surgeon or the equipment to carry out the operation properly.

"In the ambulance to the airport, we stopped to pick up a guy after a bike accident. He died twice on the way and had to be resuscitated.

"In Athens, there were people in the corridor with arms and legs hanging off - all from car crashes. One guy had his leg amputated in front of me, then the bloody tools were wheeled past me on a trolley. It was a vision of hell."

He said that a Greek orthodox priest read him his last rites before he was finally operated on - by a Greek doctor who trained at Shotley Bridge Hospital, in County Durham.

Mr Race needed corrective surgery on his wrist when he arrived back in the UK. MEP Stephen Hughes described his ordeal as "horrific".

* Chris Rochester's parents continue their campaign to boycott Greece in Durham's Market Place on Saturday.