A grandmother flown home to the UK on a mercy mission after falling critically ill during a cruise to Bermuda has died.

Sheila Hollinghurst, 54, was stranded on the Island for three days without the specialist neurological care she needed after developing an aneurysm, a type of swelling, in the brain while aboard the TheJewel of the Seas.

The grandmother-of-six had no medical insurance, meaning that no hospital in the USA would admit her, and the British government refused to pay for her Medivac airlift home.

She was eventually rescued by a kind-hearted businessman who answered her family's desperate appeal for help and paid $89,000 for her to be flown home to Manchester on Wednesday.

Sadly, she lost her fight for life in the city's Hope Hospital on Saturday.

Her daughter, Amanda Turner, has laid the blame for her mother's death at the door of the British Government who she says let her down in her hour of need. "The hospital here could not operate on my mother because she had been sedated for such a long time and the delay in bringing her home was a factor in that," she said.

"The British government has murdered my mum because they would not pay to get her home."

Mrs. Turner, who has previously vowed to lobby the government and the insurance industry to ensure that no other family endures such heartache, said that she would continue to fight for action once she has organised her mother's funeral.

Meanwhile, she remains grateful for the kindness shown to her by the people of Bermuda, particularly the wealthy 72-year-old businessman, who has asked that his name should not be printed.

"He is such a fantastic guy and so generous. The fact that we were able to get my mum home was amazing as we were able to be by her bedside when she died rather than her dying in Bermuda on her own," she said.

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: "We are sorry to hear the sad news that Mrs. Hollinghurst has died, and our sympathy goes out to her family and friends.

"Our consular officials did provide help and assistance when she became ill but we are unable to provide the same sort of assistance that an insurance scheme would."