A YOUNG holidaymaker has been left with kidney failure and blinded after drinking fake alcohol believed to be contaminated with highly toxic methanol.

Hannah Powell was taken to hospital in agony after waking up sightless in both eyes and with extreme stomach pain following a night out on the Greek island of Zakynthos.

Doctors carried out emergency treatment for acute kidney failure, but she is still struggling to regain her sight.

Police on the holiday island have launched an investigation into the incident.

The 20-year-old, from Ormesby, Middlesbrough, is on a dialysis machine with her distraught parents at her bedside.

Her mother Christine told the Sunday People: “Her kidneys have completely gone. She’s on dialysis every day.”

Doctors are unsure if her full sight or kidneys will ever return to normal.

The 51-year-old flew out with Hannah’s dad Derek, 56, earlier this week.

Her mother added: “She hasn’t recovered. She can see tiny bits but it isn’t good. She can only see some shapes.

“The police came to talk to us and have done a report. They think it could be methanol that is responsible but the investigation is ongoing.

"She was on a Thomson package holiday with two friends. We just want to get her home. She’ll have to go in an air ambulance. She can’t travel on a normal one.”

Doctors on Zakynthos immediately transferred her to the hospital in the Peloponnese region, where it is understood she has made significant progress.

A family friend described what happened on the island, which is popular with young British holidaymakers.

The friend said: “The girls all went for a night out and then when Hannah woke up she couldn’t see and was suffering massive pains in her stomach.

“She was really distressed and wasn’t getting any better so her friends took her to a medical centre next to the hotel. Then an ambulance took her to hospital on the mainland.

“The girls were all so excited before they went away and it’s a nightmare situation.”

This is not the first time a British traveller has been poisoned by methanol.

In 2013, Brit backpacker Cheznye Emmons died five days after drinking gin mixed with methanol in Indonesia.

The tragic 23-year-old suffered sudden blindness and convulsions after drinking the concoction.