A STROKE victim has died just days after thanking the benefactor who came to her rescue by flying her home from a South African hospital.

When she celebrated her 74th birthday last week, great-grandmother Maureen Turner, from Eldon Lane, near Bishop Auckland was to be able to tell lottery winner Barry Moss how much his generosity meant to her and her family.

Mr Moss, who lives near Darlington, had paid thousands of pounds for an air ambulance to fly her back home from Cape Town, where she had been taken ill on Boxing Day.

The modest millionaire contacted Mrs Turner's family after reading in The Northern Echo in January how she was stranded without holiday insurance and was desperate to come home.

Thanks to his kindness, Mrs Turner was flown back to Durham Tees Valley Airport accompanied by a doctor and taken straight to Bishop Auckland General Hospital for an emotional reunion with her six sons and two daughters and their families.

Unfortunately, despite treatment and rehabilitation, she was left paralysed and unable to live independently so had spent her final weeks being cared for by staff at South Church Nursing Home.

Friends said yesterday that her family were shocked by her sudden death on Saturday morning.

A family spokesperson said: "They are heartbroken. They have been through a lot.

"She was a wonderful mother and a lovely person. Everybody is absolutely devastated.

"We are so pleased she was able to meet Barry and tell him how grateful we all were. It was all she talked about."

Mrs Turner and her late husband Jock were well known in Eldon Lane and Bishop Auckland, where she managed the old Presto's caf and cooked meals in the Coach and Horses pub.

Her funeral is at St Mark's Church, Eldon Lane, on Friday at 1pm.