A FAMILY are trying to raise £9,000 to bring their grandfather back from Portugal after his holiday barbecue went horrifically wrong.

Bernard Earnshaw suffered severe burns while squirting lighter fluid on to a barbecue during his holiday in the Algarve with his wife, Rose.

The can exploded in his hand and his wife had to walk miles to fetch help.

Mr Earnshaw, 55, from Norton, near Malton, North Yorkshire, was taken to a local hospital and then transferred to one in Lisbon suffering from burns to 45 per cent of his body.

Doctors have told the family it will be a month before Mr Earnshaw, who is disabled, will be able to travel home on a normal flight. And as he had not travel insurance, they are now trying to raise the £9,000 it will cost to bring him home.

Daughter Claire Weatherill said: "Mum is with him and my sister is travelling out there.

"Dad is delirious because of the drugs and thinks they are travelling from Malton to see him everyday."

Her three youngsters - Josh, eight, Rosie, seven, and Dominic, four - are all starting to miss their granddad, and young Josh is even trying to sell his toys to raise cash.

Now Claire and her husband, Andrew, are planning a sponsored walk around Norton this morning and a collection in the local pubs as well as car-boot sale in Wigginton, on Sunday, to start raising the cash.

A spokesman at the British consulate in Lisbon confirmed it would cost about £9,000 to get him home and said: "This incident shows how important it is that anyone travelling abroad should have insurance."