Bethany And Simone Did Everything Together - Until a Toxic Drink Took Simone’s Life

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On about half past eight, we noticed that her breathing had changed and she started gasping for air. And that for me was when I thought, crap, I really have no idea what this is, because the hangover would never lead to that.

Bethany Clark was three days into the trip of a lifetime with her best friend Simone White when everything changed. They were traveling through Lao, having the kind of adventure you meant to have in your twenties, meeting people, seeing the world, having fun. But one night they were given vodka shots at the backpacker hostel they were staying at. The drinks had been laced with methanol, a toxic chemical that can be deadly. By the next day, both Bethany

Thank you.

Can I say first of all that I'm extraordinarily sorry for the circumstances that have led to us meeting.

Appreciate that, thank you.

And the circumstances that I'm referring to occurred not even a year ago, November twenty twenty four, last year, and you were traveling with your best friend, Simone White. The pair of you grew up in England together. We did tell me a little bit about your upbringing together.

So we met.

I think I was four, she would have been five in the first year of primary school.

And yeah, we've basically been friends ever since.

She was that person to just keep us connected the entire time, so throughout various phases of our life. You know, we went to different secondary schools, we went to completely different unis, different parts of the country. She was always the anchor and the person that would always arrange the plans. We just did so many holidays together over the years.

What you're talking about, too, is a part of the world that means a great deal to Australians. You would know, having spent so much time here that a lot of Australians start their traveling adventures by traveling through Southeast Asia. And in fact I met my husband on a trip to Lao twenty.

Five years ago.

Yes, So when the stories broke that you and Simone were in hospital, that there were these British girls and there were other backpackers as well who were in hospital at that point being treated for methanol poisoning, the whole nation kind of traveled that time period with you in Australia.

Yeah, I mean it was just supposed to be a fun holiday. Really.

Initially the plan wasn't actually to go to Lao at all. It was just to be Cambodia, and Simone kind of encouraged me to go with the plan of it also being loud because we were only supposed to be there for four days. And this happened on the i think the third day, And it was really just because it's in the same region as Cambodia, and we were planning to do the islands like Co Wrong Co Wrong Center m because it's that close. She was like, Oh, we may as well do it too, because we're not going

That's what did it.

You were in a town called rain Being, which is has become a bit of a hot spot for tubing.

You can go tubing down the river.

That's what we did that day that it happened.

Yeah, and so you'd had a kind of celebratory day in the outdoors, you went back to your the backpacker's hostel where you were staying, a place called Nana not a backpacker.

Yeah, So we finished the tubing, went back there, got ready, and we knew about this happy hour starting at eight, So we got there shortly after eight, and I think we I suspect we had about five or six We were doing rounds and we were sort of going up to get the shots, which we would then to count into plastic tumblers.

And then we also brought some sprite which we mixed with it.

So I can't say that I ever tasted Neat vodka, but I remember just putting a little bit of sprite in testing it to see how strong it was, and I thought, oh, maybe they've diluted it.

It's quite weak.

So at that point, obviously I didn't have any concerns because if something just tastes weak, you think, oh, well, there's probably not a lot of ethanol.

In this a lot of alcohol.

But obviously, when I look back to that time, I think, well, maybe that's because it wasn't actually ethanol. It was methanol, so it kin'd of been pure methanol. Obviously we know that. But yeah, for for whatever reason, Simone must have had more. I mean, she had exactly the same volume, but the concentration of what she had must have been more.

What was the vibe at the backpackers that night, so I imagine there were people were in pretty high spirits. People are on holidays there from all around the world. Everybody's genuinely young. How many people were they at the at that happy hour?

It's tricky because we just sat at the table and I think we were probably the first to arrive, and we were sitting with two Swedish backpackers and a Dutch backpacker that we've met already. And I don't recall seeing loads and loads of people there. I know there would have been a few, but you know, I don't think

And we was simone at this point.

So I got to bed about ten.

She'd come back with our male friend at about just after midnight, so there was the three of us staying in a private room, and the male friend. I'm not going to mention his name because I don't think he really wants to be mentioned, but he is somebody that we both known for about ten years, and he met Simone at secondary school.

Did you wake up when they came back.

No, I think I was just truly out for the can I just I just passed out.

So at what point did you realize that you were unwell? You had activity these planned the next day, So.

We woke up the following morning, I think at about eight am, and we had this tour sort of half an hour later, so we were sort of trying to get everything ready and leave. But I just remember kind of coming down the steps from the hostel room and thinking, oh, I don't feel very steady here, and just generally feeling a bit confused and not really knowing what was going on. Absolutely no hunger whatsoever, which is quite unusual.

Yeah, because normally, if it's a straightforward hangover, you're like, get me something.

Very sy yeah. Yeah, and both of you were the same, Yeah.

Very similar. I mean our male friend was similar at that point too. I think we all just agreed that something wasn't right, but we had no idea what it was, and because our cognitions didn't seem to be functioning either, we would never have come to the conclusion at the time that it was anything other than a hangover, because that was the only thing that sort of fitted with

Was that still at the Blue Lagoon. No, it was a different location.

It was exactly where we'd done the tubing the day before, but because we felt that it might be nice just to sort of go at our own pace kayaking, that's what we chose to do.

Except when we got.

There, Simone and I couldn't actually sit up to do the kayaking, So instead of being able to use your core, sit up straight and paddle, we just had to lay flat on the backs of the kayaks and let the people that were so basically running the tour they had to get on our kayaks and actually paddle for us. So again, that should have been a big red flag.

Could this be something else?

It It just seemed to be an easy conclusion for me to come to. And I've saw Simone sort of being sick off of her kayak with our male friend on it, and I'm thinking, oh, she doesn't really do that unless it's motion sickness, and I'm thinking it's really motion sickness because we're so slow on these things. But anyway,

Simon's being sick vomiting.

So I got off, checked on her, and then I fainted, and again, you know, in my head, I'm thinking, oh, that's a bit strange, but again I didn't seem to be able to understand that was quite severe in addition to the other symptoms, so you know, and I'm also thinking, oh, that can't have been a seizure, because I'm known I have epilepsy. So I was thinking, oh god, it's not that, because that would have been horrific, you know, that would

Bad, yes, because you're reading the cues from the people around you, and the people around you probably just assumed that you were two girls who had a large night. Yeah, and you were suffering the effects of a hangover. Had they pulled the bus over because Simone was so seek at that time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then our male friend said to the driver, I think we're going to need to drop us to a hospital, which they were prepared to do luckily, but unfortunately we went to a public hospital in Vieni Anne, who they were just pretty to be honest. So when we got there, I ended up just waiting outside with Simone because again we didn't understand severity of what was going on. So our male friend went in and we just watched him go in, and we waited outside just to sort of rest.

So I went in.

Had he gone in?

Was he he was going in sort of to advocate for you, to say, I'm with these two girls who are unwill.

And particularly he felt unwell and that's why he went in. But for us, we I think if I'd thought there was something seriously wrong, I would have gone in, But because again I'm just thinking, oh, it's a hangover, and I think this is the trouble. When we see these other cases, people just rest it off and they think that it's going to be fine and they're just laying in bed and then it all just goes wrong and

I didn't realize that.

One of the side effects of mythanol poisoning is that it has this cognitive effect on you, so that you don't think clearly. Yeah.

And this is why I've had to kind of give myself a bit of a bit of slack because at the time I was poisoned too, and I didn't pick up on what was going on. And I think having sort of spoken to my mum after the event as well, you know, my apparently when I rang her after the event, my eyes were moving properly and my speech was slow, and clearly it wasn't just me, you know, other people could see it. It wasn't just like you know, I

And also she was a lawyer, So just knowing generally.

The personality type that become lawyers, they do tend to be people who are very certain of themselves.

Yes, and I think she wouldn't have thought that it was anything bad going on because similarly to me, she probably thought it was just a hangover, because I think she said to her other friend, this is a really severe hangover. This was earlier in the day, so she obviously hadn't come to the conclusion it was anything worse, and she had no idea about methanol poisoning either. So anyway, we sat outside this hospital for a while.

I then went in.

As soon as I got in, I said to them, look what is this, And they were like, well, we think it's food poisoning. I said, too rather friendly, it can't be that, because we all have different diets.

It can't possibly be that.

I wasn't vomiting, I hadn't had diarrhe I hadn't even got stomach pain. So they just kept going on with that diagnosis, really, and until somemone came in, that was still their diagnosis, and they took me up to an ivy drip, which I was very reluctant to do. I didn't really want them sticking needles in my hand without knowing what it was that was actually going on. But because our male friend had had success with feeling better, I thought, all right, well I'll just continue on the

What was the situation at the hospital, what, what was the makeup of it was? I imagine it was quite a humble DIYer. Yeah it was, yeah.

Right world, Yeah so it was.

When you went in, it was one big ward, obviously really overcrowded. There was just a separate room which was used as their sort of version of ICU. Not many doctors, very few nursing stuff sort of available, And I remember actually going to the toilet in there at one point and there was no pound wash, there was there was no toilet paper. I actually ripped my canula out to use the toilet. That was basically what we were, what we're talking about. I imagine the care for other people

She's still talking again.

I'm thinking, well, you're pretty much the same as me, except that you've been vomiting, which is obviously a bit more severe.

So they put her in a bed, which wasn't really part of the ward.

It seemed like the hospital was so overcrowded that she'd sort of gone on like a gurney type I don't know, like a stretchery type thing, you know, those wheelie beds, And I think she would have got in there maybe past five six o'clock, and then they started her on all the same course of treatment, and I also gave her some electrolytes, which she vomited up immediately, and I checked her heart rate actually with my watch, and it was eighty two.

So I thought, oh, well, you know, it's a.

Bit high, but it's not overly overly concerning at this point, and at about eight half past eight, we noticed that her breathing had changed and she started gasping for air, and that, for me was when I thought, crap. I really have no idea what this is, because a hangover would never lead to that, and I had no other sort of differentials in my head. And they said to me, we think that she's got she's had some drugs. So is it amthetamines? Has she taken amfetamines? No, for God's sake,

So I went in there with her, tried to talk to her, and she just looked.

How was she at that point? Was she?

No, she had this oxygen in her nose, but she she wasn't able to talk to me.

She wasn't even able to look at me at this point.

So I'm saying to her, look, try and calm down, because they were saying to me, is she anxious?

And I'm like, no, she doesn't get anxious.

But I was trying to say to her, look trying and concentrate on me, like but she just looked vacant.

She just looked ahead. She also looking at me.

So that's when I knew that something obviously wasn't right with her brain. And luckily, our male friend was on his phone and he had his phone connection all set up so that he was using the internet where I didn't, and he managed to find a private hospital which was

And luckily she did and they did come and collect us.

But by the time that they came probably half past ten, and that's probably quite a long delay for somebody who's struggling to breathe.

So we got to this private hospital.

I know he got there at twenty past eleven, as that's what it said on the report. But during that journey, I've got absolutely no recollection. I remember sitting at the front next to the driver and literally just falling asleep.

Don't remember the journey.

After the break.

Bethany shares what unfolded during those critical hours at the private hospital. At this time while you're trying to advocate for simone where you've realized is in different circumstances than you were, but your own circumstances were terrible.

Well, yeah, it wasn't great.

I was just feeling so fatigued, most fatigued I've ever felt in my life.

It was just awful.

And then when we arrived, I vaguely remember our male friend saying to the paramedic, do you think this could be methanol poisoning?

You'd actually done a bit of research on his.

Phone, and obviously I was like, what, you know, we've been poisoned, and they said, well, yeah, actually it could be, because we've seen four or five cases of this before, so is every chance that it is that. But what's frustrating is that in the media there's no reports of methanol poisoning ever in Lao, So it's frustrating that it has happened there before, but it's never been recorded. So when we got in there, I've got a handover all the passports, signing to sort of say we give our

All of her organs are you know, they should be clean.

Now. We're going to do some bloods on her check them. And the next thing I heard, all of her organs were fine. It was just you know, they've given us some sedation because she was so agitated because of the breathing thing, and she'd also had five seizures, but at the time I was told it was one seizure, which I thought, you know, one seizure or you can come back from that. But because it was five, that's a lot of seizures for somebody that doesn't have seizures.

Were you able to see her at that time.

No, No, So with the information that I had, I made the decision to contact her mum and say, look, apparently she's feeling better this morning. But I told her what the diagnosis was, metabolic sidosis as a result of being poisoned with methanol, which is where your blood is really acidic as a result of the form of acid and formaldehyde that is the byproducts of consuming methanol.

So yeah, that's kind of what we knew at the time.

I told her mum that over text message because I wasn't really in a position to have a phone call with somebody, and she came straight back saying, I hope she gets better soon, and I was thinking, you know, yeah, I hope so too. But I kind of I suppose, I kind of thought maybe she'd want to speak to me or kind of get a bit more clarification, but her mum is very much always sort of thinks about the best case scenario, whereas I'm always what is the worst case scenario?

A catastrophized her?

I am, yeah, So I'd had that conversation with her, and I thought, oh, well she thinks it's all right, then yeah, hopefully it will be, and which.

I shouldn't think it was all right.

But you know the way that I that she sent back, I wasn't worried that she was really worried, if you see what I mean.

But then there was a bit she wasn't panicking.

She wasn't panicking. No way. My mom would have been like, oh God, what's happened?

Had you called your mom? Had you messaged your mum at this point?

Or were your nuts? Just with Simon?

I was waiting because I also didn't want to worry my parents if there was going to be some kind of disaster with myself. You know, I wanted to be clued up, and I didn't want to have a phone call and say, well, I don't know, I don't know. I wanted to know what was going on a bit more before I had sort of made calls. And also I wasn't really with it enough to get through a

She needs to know now.

So anyway, we then kind of got moved later on that day, so we've been in ICU I think for about twenty four hours. We then got moved to a separate part of that hospital to just basically recover because we weren't kind of critical anymore.

They'd managed to give us some sodium by carbonate.

And Simone was we're still at this point.

Still in ICU, so she always was in ICU. We've been given pretty much everything you can think of, you know, sodium by carbonate, potassium, magnesium. The only symptom that I really had that I can recall being particularly severe in

Have to drink it. We've got no other way of giving that to you.

So I had to force myself to drink it, but every single sit it was burning, so I had to have tiny bit of water to flush it down, but even the water was burning. It was just obviously the former CASSID had got in and that's the area that it was kind of attacking, where I think for the others they were getting more stomach pain and more stomach related stuff. But actually, other than the nausea, I wasn't getting too much stomach pain at that time, so for me,

Happened, there was no way that sleep was on the cards.

A male friend and I went off and we spent another I think three nights on that separate ward just recovering, and during that time her mum had managed to book flights to come over because she was meant to have come around from sedationan I think doing day or the day after, and that she still hadn't. So he said to Sue, you know, she was meant to have come around from sedasia, but she hasn't. Basically, I think it'd be good if you can get over here. So that's when she booked her flights.

So simone, as you said, was under sedation, the expectation would have been that she would have regained consciousness and come to So who had been messaging her mum Sue to tell her that her daughter had not me So again.

Contrically the lack of communication in that hospital because no one really spoke good English. It was having to go via me because they didn't seem to be able to call her and tell her this, So I was having to be the sort of interpreter. But yeah, I had a conversation with the new resurgeon when she wasn't waking up.

I then spoke to him.

He said, look, what's happening is that the left side of her brain is swollen and we need to do a decompression craniotomy to release this swelling on her brain. Otherwise it's just not going to get better and she could be in a coma.

Which is a massive This is a massive operation. It was, but obviously we had no other option.

And he said, look, it's about twenty percent chance it will actually do what it needs to do, but there will be other surgeries and other sort of risks as well that could happen, so they could be bleeding, etc. And even if it did work, we would then need to do another surgery.

And I was like, this is just nuts.

It was.

It was so surreal. I didn't think it was even happening. I was like, am I in some kind of alternate universe? Like word just really didn't understand what was going on.

At this point.

Bethany, have you been able to lay eyes on somemone or are you still in the two different parts of the hospital.

I did see her, yeah, and as soon as I saw her, she had a tube down her, So no, it wasn't a nice sight. I just remember looking at her and thinking like come on, like you need to get out of this, this is ridiculous. Come on, But she just she was too far gone. You know, she would have already been brain damaged. I think in that public hospital when I was trying to look at her

Yes, we'll have to do it. You know, I think she just got into that mindset.

Of because you two had grown up together. I imagine that you'd seen quite a lot of Sue, yes, Simon's mum as well, growing up, so she knew you very well, and you her. Did your parents know each other as well?

Yeah, we used to spend Christmas Eve together, so we'd go for a meal, and that's actually what we're going to be doing this year as well, and we've done it for the last few years quite religiously, so that will continue.

So soon knew the makeup of you and knew that you how grave the situation was for you to be calling her and saying this is the operation of said needs to be done.

I think she would have known from the brain surgery being mentioned that really the chances were very slim, but she just had no other option but to kind of come over because not only for Simone, but for us, because we were just in a state of like, how can we deal with this on our own? Like you know, it was just torrific being in that hospital and the lack of communication as well, you know, and it was good to have an adult there who it could sort of take responsibility for.

What was going on as well.

Yes, because yeah, it was a lot for me to sort of mentally deal with everything, the trauma and everything else.

At this point, how are you feeling mentally? Have you emerged from that sort of the vacancy of the methanol poisoning.

You're not one hundred percent obviously, Oh.

No, I wouldn't have been one hundred percent, But I think I could have a conversation without it sounding odd, right. I was just really really tired but couldn't sleep because of the situation. I was just wired, I think would probably be the right way of describing it. At one point, the doctors did give us some sort of sleeping pills so that we could get to sleep, but even that didn't cut it for me. Yeah, it was just a

A complete waste of time. And it was obviously causing more.

Stress as well, because she had to have her hair shaved off, you know, we had to she had to have several blood transfusions to get her platelets high enough to actually do the surgery in the first place.

And obviously there was the additional sort of worry.

For her mum about her going through a procedure like that, So.

Yeah, where's her mum? Where's her mum?

At this point, by the time that she actually had the brain surgery, Sue had actually seen her just before she went in, so it was it was actually quite good timing with the delays with the transfusions that she needed to have.

Sue got there just in the nick of time to see her.

Obviously her hair was shaved and everything, but yeah, it was nice for her to see her beforehand, I think. And yeah, and then the next thing, we were told, probably four or five hours later, that she'd come out the brain surgery work, but it caused a bleed on that side, and we had a little bit of hope for probably a few hours, and then they said, actually, now the other side of her brain is swollen to so basically that's it. There's nothing else that we can

What happened next is something Bith and he will carry forever. After the break, she shares that moment. Where are you at this point? Are you still a patient or you're sort of just there waiting bedside?

We were still patient, but we were well enough to actually go downstairs and see her because I think we were sort of carrying around drips of various things. So we were around definitely. But yeah, we were then discharged. I think might have been the Sunday, Saturday or Sunday, and we've got in there on the Wednesday. Yeah, that's about right, so four or five five days. Yeah, all

Obviously we're thinking, well how long is that going to take?

Like, you know, we can't be in a country indefinitely waiting for her to go.

Was that the first time that they had talked about death in those terms.

Well, obviously, given that we knew she was undergoing brain surgery with very limited chance of it working, that had obviously come into my head before, but yeah, it was the first time that they really sort of focused in on the fact that we were going to need to wait for her to go. But with that, obviously her

We'd be thinking, well, how long are we going to be here?

So in the end, our male friend had book flights and then I said to Sue, look, I'm going to have to go because I can't.

I can't be here anymore.

So we'd book the flights for the twenty first of November, which is which ended up actually being the day that Simone died, so Sue we wanted to get on those same flights. Really that morning, Sue had said to the consulate, is there anything you can do? Because we're now just waiting for someone to die and we can't really, we can't be here much longer, you know, we need to speed this up somehow. What's the point of that. It's just harming us, it's not harming her anymore. So prolonging

Through the stats.

But we could see that she was being given glucose whilst we were waiting for her to die. She was being given gluecose and she was also being given additional oxygen. So I thought she was breathing air, but actually she was breathing more oxygenated air.

So I'm saying, sorry, what's going on?

Why is she being given something more than what the average person would be. You know, we're not trying to prolong her life here, we're trying to end it. And they said, oh, we've got to do these things gradually, blah blah blah.

What they were actually.

Trying to do is earn more money for their hospital because some moment at that point, someone was the only person in their ICU, so she was the one that was funding everything.

So that's and she had insurance.

She had insurance, which obviously was I think it was a very very hefty insurance bill.

In the end, it was thirty pounds or something.

But anyway, yeah, they were doing all this stuff and we were saying to them, can you stop because this isn't helping.

So they did stop it, but it was very gradual.

They put the gluecose, turned it off, and then the air they brought the oxygen level down to what air would be, but still that didn't actually help sort of bring things to a close. So yeah, Sue had to have this chat with the consulate and he must have spoken to the hospital and she was then allowed to switch it off herself, which is what she had to do in order for us to leave the country.

So SA mine's mum who had to turn off, was that it was effective life support.

Yeah, yeah, and I think it took three gos to actually fully do it because no one's willing to be in the room with her.

I'd said, do you.

Want me in there, but she wanted it to be a private moment with her and her husband and her son, so she had them on the end of the phone and she did it, tried to do it herself, and I think the first thing that happened was the backup ventilator came on, so obviously she'd had to come out, talk to them, ask them how to get that.

Well, then they told her how to do that.

Then she didn't realize she had to take the tube out, so she had to take the tube out.

Oh, so basically the whole thing was long and drawn out.

I was looking at these machines on the outside, hoping that it would be quick, but actually ended up being a lot longer than we anticipated. But from the time that she actually turned it off to the time that Simone officially died, it was about half an hour.

So yeah, and how was her mum? Then?

I think relieved actually to some extent, because we were just waiting and we didn't know when that end date was going to be, and I didn't want to leave her in Low so I think there was a little bit of relief when we were actually able to.

Finally, you know, say goodbye.

Obviously she was devastated and we were crying and it was all it was all horrible, but it meant that she could get that flight with us, which gave us the safety that we needed and also probably helped her out a little bit too. So that evening we flew out of Loud back to the UK.

You must have been actually exhausted. But how was the flight?

Yeah, well I ended up paying for business class just so that I could sleep, because I hadn't slept that entire time waiting wait for the inevitable. Really, but I think that was probably the best sleep that I had had for the last sort of week because it was done, there was no more waiting. And Yeah, unfortunately, Simone's mum had a particularly bad experience on the flight because, you know, we tried to say to the airline staff, you know, is there any chance that she could be given a

So there had been no consular you know, wording up of the airline anything like that. Their assistants didn't extend to that, to there being compassionate grounds for trading, no, you know, Simone's mum, No, probably would have.

Been sensible but I think because it was a flight that was booked so last minute, like she literally booked it that morning. And the concert was good in that he got us through the Lao airport because we were actually quite panicked that we were going to be arrested for slander because of the things that were going on on Facebook. You know, I'd put something out of Facebook saying this is what's going on?

Has anyone else been poisoned?

So I was then worried that my name was out there and that somehow low officials were going to be in the airport sort of talking to us.

But anyway, it was fine.

He insisted it would be fine, and it was fine, and he got us through the airport okay, And yeah, that was kind of where his duties sort of ended, I think.

But no, the concert was pretty good.

He did quite well to sort of keep us quite calm, and yeah, we obviously weren't in a position to be calm, so he was our grounding really whilst we were there. But yeah, I think we were just really glad to be home.

Was that a time when you know, you were returning to familiar surrounds, but they were I imagine unfamiliar because your friend was not there.

Yeah, I think I was definitely in a state of shock when I got back, because I just kind of had to keep it all going when we were there, but when I got back, it was at a state of yeah, you have to try and still function, but I was in a state of shock, so I would sort of get up and then feel dizzy and need

And instead was there a memorial for her or a funeral?

What did her family do in that event?

So we didn't. I think Sue didn't want to rush the funerals.

So the funeral actually happened in January, so a bit after Christmas, And I think the reason being that she didn't want to rush the planning of it, so you know what kind of music and getting all the photographs together, and she had a lot of other things to deal with at the same time, you know, even just the repatriation process, and you know, other things that needs to go on, like post mortem, and you know, she had a house and only just bought a flat, so she

So it was for the best.

Really, what has the process of grief looked like for you since then?

It's a very slow process.

I think for me it was kind of dealing with the trauma first, because the trauma seems to even now be too.

It's two separate things. So the trauma's here and the.

Grief is here, and I'm now I think trying to deal with the grief.

But I've kind of kind of got there with the trauma.

I think I don't really have flashbacks or anything or like nightmares, but obviously I do get reminders of things, but nothing is of debilitating or really really severe. So yeah, for me, it's just trying to process what's happened, and you know, the death of her really and the loss, the personal loss I have from not having my friend anymore. You know her daily and we'd send voice notes daily, and you to not have that anymore. She was my guiding light in a way, like if I had a problems,

Basically, I've come a long way.

And I think doing this campaign as well has kind of had this distraction. It's been a bit of distraction, I think for the grief, but it's also been a really good way of kind of using my time to commemorate and remember and do something good in her memory, because I think that she would have achieved so much in her life, so that if I can do this so that other people don't have to go through it, then I think that can only be a good thing.

You have.

You've channeled your pain into advocacy and into this area which I did not realize was so prevalent, which is the use of methanol that when to basically make drinks stronger, stretch it out and underregulated.

Yeah, it just makes it a little bit cheaper for them.

Obviously, you can kind of make alcohol badly as well, and that can come up too, But I think in this situation it definitely all seem to be a case of organized crime, because Vang Vieg did have a bit of an association with organized crime anyway.

So yes, yeah, I kind of see there's a ced underbilly in that town.

Yeah, and it was a Vietnamese own hostel and the two people that were probably involved and fled to Vietnam, so I think they kind of knew what was going on and have moved on.

And then, so as far as I understand the backpacker, the hostel Nana closed down for a period and then they've reopened.

Well, they were trying to, and I've done my best efforts to try and sabotage that.

So they were trying to open up in August.

So I then obviously spoke to the BBC and various news outlets to make sure that they won't be doing that. Yeah, I think, I hope, hope that they're not going to open.

Now, right, and at government level, what had been the ramifications in that area anything, Is it followed up? Has anyone been charged?

Well?

Is anyone going to be held to account for Samone's death?

Thirteen people were detained at the time, and then we found out through I think the Danish or Australian families that they were all released, and that was just before we went on This Morning, which is a British morning show,

It's clearly been washed out with washing up liquid.

So they've obviously discarded of the evidence that they had, so they may not have found any methanol in the bottles. I don't know because we don't speak to the law authorities about stuff like that.

But six people died m Yeah, and the six people who died had were they all involved, they'd all been staying at the backpackers or they'd all been to the happy hour at Nana's.

Yeah, everyone stayed there.

I think the difference with the man who died was that he was found in his room and I don't know that he went to the happy hour, and we're not sure the circumstances of his death, but everybody else definitely methanol poisoning related.

Yeah.

Then the Danish girls had a very very awful sort state of affairs going on with that because they were, you know, vomiting blood and it all just Yeah, and their parents didn't even get the right death certificate. I think the death certificate said heart failure. It was all just completely wrong, and they had to agree to that death certificate because otherwise they wouldn't have got their children's bodies back.

So it's just.

It's on another scale to what we had to deal with, really but I mean they didn't even find out that they died until a way later, I think the Saturday. So yeah, it's horrific. But yeah, these charges. Food and beverage safety was one of them, which it's not really it's not really the right thing. And working without a work permit was another one.

I'm not really sure what that's about.

Not charges specifically pertaining to the loss of life.

No, and we were told it would be six years, we were told, or six or seven years for a mass poisoning. But it's proving that it was a mass poisoning, which shouldn't be difficult to do if for six people have died in place, But for some reason it's not enough evidence. So they obviously needed to have the methanol sort of in situ to be tested, but of s if it was all chucked away, then they haven't got that evidence. Yeah, it's infuriating because we can say for

It's just how was it when you saw that footage?

Yeah, I really didn't like watching it back initially.

It proves we were there, so it's good that they sent me it.

What do you think Simone would say about what you're doing now, which is basically encouraging young travelers to drink safely overseas.

I don't know, really. I think she'd be happy.

I guess that I was taking my time to do this, but at the same time, I think she would have done it for me. So yeah, And I always kind of think, oh, bet she'd be doing more, but she'd be doing this, that or the other. So I always kind of worry that I'm not doing enough in some ways. But yeah, I've just tried to sort of take up all the interviews to do as much as I can

So Simone was the organizer, but you're the organizer now.

Yeah, I've had to be yeah without her.

Yeah, and how would you like her to be remembered?

Oh?

I just for some reason, I hate this question because I feel like I never do her justice with whatever I say. But she was just a really strong, independent, intelligent, active, friendly you know, pretty much any positive adjective, you know, she was it. She was just the best sort of friend that I could have asked for. She listened to me, you know, any sort of rubbish came out of my mouth, she would put up with it. And yeah, she'd always

That's a huge loss.

How do you feel the shape of her that's missing from your life?

You can't, I think, is the answer to that.

You just can't but the way that my grief counselor explained it is that you sort of build up your life around the grief. So the grief sort of stays the same, but you build up your life around. So I guess doing this kind of work, advocacy work, campaigning, it's building stretching what I would normally be doing. So it's just a way for me to help the situation but also to process what's gone on.

It's interesting because I think in the face of extreme loss and grief you kind of have two options, and you can crawl away from it or you can run towards it. And I have to thank you on behalf of the for really young travelers who will be benefited, possibly saved by the work that you're doing in this space.

Yeah, I just hope people sort of sit up and listen and think more about what they're putting inside the bodies. Really, you know, I'm sure people still think, oh, this cocktail will be fine.

You know, I've been here before. You just don't know.

It's happening in so many different countries around the world, and there was recently I found out that the Vietnam are putting their tax on alcohol from sixty five ninety percent on spirits, so it's only going to start happening.

More so, is your concrete advice to travelers only drink from sealed bottles? What form does the advice take?

I think seal bottles is difficult because I know of the case Chesney Emmons, she bought some gin from a shop in Sumatra and she died. So there's a lot of counterfeit alcohol out there, especially places like Ballei. I won't be going back to Bali, so I can say that, but yeah, not just there, it would be in a lot of different places too, but it's just sort of knowing where, and you don't know where. Unless we're getting investigative journalists to go out to these places and buy alcohol,

You know you can sort of get like not smurn off eyes.

I think that comes in a bottle, but you know that kind of thing where you can see it's like a smirn Off, but it's come out of a can. Siders out of a can, anything like that should be safe because no one can really get anything else in there, So that is.

Just really open bottles of spirit.

That's particularly dangerous because anything could have been put in there, It could have been topped up with something counterfeit.

And even wine.

I think there was an issue with wine in the nineteen eighties somewhere in Europe where a lot of people died from that. So nothing's one hundred percent safe, but I think we can say that cans are relatively safe.

Where will your next trip be.

Back to the UK for Christmas? I've spent so you're in Brisbane now? Yeah, yeah, and I'll go And how is it December?

How is it? Being away?

In some ways good because I think there was just so many memories back in Orpington, which is where we're from.

In London in general.

You know, we lived in we lived together at one point in the Isle of Dogs, which is kind of near Greenwich, and you know, she had a flat over in Greenwich. You know, there's just so many memories in that part of the world. And so for me being over here, I mean, she did come here once, but at least it's much less than at home, and I've got that bit of space to kind of think about other things as well. It's just not good for you

Yes, well, Bethany Clark, thank you so much for joining us on No Filter. Thank you for having me, and thank you for introducing us to your beautiful friends and mine.

Thank you.

Last night I couldn't sleep, and it was partly because I had to get up very early to do this interview with Bethany Clark, but it was also because of who she was that I knew that I was going to meet someone who had lost their best friend, and who had lost their best friend in the most extraordinary of circumstances, which was celebrating the joy of life. The conversation that I had with Bethany will stay with me for a long time. She could have chosen to stay quiet,

Who deserves to come home.

Like I said, this is a conversation I will never forget, and I don't think you will either. The executive producer of No Filter is Brown and the senior producer is Bree Player. Audio production is by Jacob Brown and I am your host, Kate Langbrook.

Thank you for listening to No Filter.