A British grandfather died just hours before his son’s wedding in Cyprus – after drowning in a hotel pool while playing with his grandchildren.
John Fazackerley, from Cheshire, had flown to Paphos to watch his son Sean marry fiancée Vicky in a long-planned ceremony.
But tragedy struck the day before the wedding when the retired builder, 60, failed to resurface during a game in the water with the youngsters.
Guests rushed to help and performed CPR at the poolside at around 2.30pm on May 25.
Sean, 30, claims resort staff struggled to locate a defibrillator – and when they finally did, none of them knew how to use it.
He told MailOnline: ‘We ended up finding it ourselves in a cupboard near reception, and a family member used it.’
An ambulance arrived about 15 minutes later and took John to Paphos General Hospital – but the family say they weren’t allowed to travel with him.
In the days since his death, Sean and his family have launched a GoFundMe page to raise money to bring John’s body home – saying they’ve been ‘let down’ by local authorities.
John Fazackerley, 60, died just hours before his son’s wedding in Cyprus – after drowning in a hotel pool while playing with his grandchildren (pictured with his son Sean, left)
John had flown to Paphos to watch his son Sean marry his fiancée Vicky in a long-planned ceremony
Despite the shock of his father’s death, Sean decided to go ahead with the wedding to his fiancée and made sure to include a special tribute to John
John was taken to Paphos General Hospital, 15 minutes away from the beach side resort and the worried family followed along in a car.
But Sean said when they arrived but was chaos and hotel staff demanded John’s passport details which the family didn’t have to hand because the documents were securely stored in a safe in the hotel room.
As they tried to locate the passports, Sean told MailOnline how his mother, Julie, was the only one allowed in to the hospital with his father.
Meanwhile the rest of the Fazackerley family were forced to sit outside on plastic chairs as they waited for news of their father.
Sean said: ‘We followed in a taxi and we had to register him with his passport details but it took time because my mum was in the hospital – she wasn’t in the hotel and my dad had set the safe pin so we couldn’t access it but the hospital wouldn’t move forward until they had the passport details.’
He added: ‘We had to sit outside on chairs in the reception.’
Sean went on to describe how the earth-shattering news of his father’s death was delivered to the worried family and slammed the hospital for dealing with them so offhandedly.
The IT manager said: ‘We were called over and they said they couldn’t save him but the door wasn’t shut and it was in public so people could walk past and hear.
John and other family members were staying at Basilica Holiday Resort when tragedy struck
Guests rushed to help John, performing CPR at the poolside before he was taken to the hospital where the family were told he had tragically died (John pictured with his wife Julie)
Sean and Vicky (pictured right) are now raising funds to bring John home and have slammed the Cypriot authoritie sand confessed they ‘let down’ by local authorities
‘We got five minutes with him and they just didn’t treat us with any empathy.’
Sean is now raising funds to bring his father home and confessed he is unsure when his father will be brought back in to the UK because of confusion over the postmortem from Cyprus.
He said he feel forgotten and frustrated but has vowed to keep pursuing the Cypriot government and police.
‘We feel forgotten, the way we have been treated, they only wanted to know about the funeral,’ he explained.
Despite the shock of his father’s death, Sean decided to go ahead with the wedding to his fiancée and made sure to include a special tribute to John.
He confessed that his father had been particularly excited for an ice cold beer following the ceremony and so in his honour they placed a family snap of John next to a cooler of beer and drank in his honour at the party.
He said: ‘We haven’t had a funeral yet but we paid tribute to him in the wedding The one thing he said he was excited for was the bar and so we set up a picture of him next to an ice bucket full of beers so he was there with us’.
Sean added that life without his father has been difficult, especially for his mother who has moved in with him and his new bride Vicky.
‘Now we’re just trying to support my mum and she’s moved in with us for a bit,’ Sean explained.
He added that the doting grandfather is missed by the entire family and especially the grandchildren.
Newly-married Sean said: ‘He was a very family-orientated man and his final moments were with his grandkids, playing.
‘He loved fishing and spending time with the grandkids and we miss him.’