Laos methanol poisoning survivor calls for change

CCTV footage captured British best friends Bethany Clarke and Simone White with a group of young travellers laughing and drinking at happy hour at the Nana Backpacker Hostel in Laos.

“We had around five to six vodka shots, which we mixed with Sprite, and I went to bed, I think at about 10.30pm,” Clarke told 9News.

Within 24 hours, the pair were among at least a dozen to fall critically ill, including two Australian teenagers.

“Within 24 hours, she’d gone into respiratory distress, and then that culminated in her having seizures and everything,” Clarke said.

Bethany and Simone had been friends since childhood.

The London-based lawyer even visited Brisbane to see her best friend’s newly adopted home in 2023.

Now, Bethany is on a mission to educate others on the dangers of methanol.

Doctors without Borders estimates that methanol poisoning accounts for more than 14,000 deaths globally in the last 30 years. 

The symptoms at first can be similar to those of having too much to drink – nausea, vomiting and stomach pains, but they escalate quickly. 

It’s most prevalent in countries with relaxed liquor laws, where it’s sometimes added to alcohol.

“If it were in the education system, then we could prevent history from repeating itself as it has done again and again and again,” Clarke said.

Queensland’s education minister, John-Paul Langbroek, says students are taught about the dangers of alcohol.

“If there needs to be some tweaking about specific topics, for example, this issue of methanol poisoning, which is something that’s come up relatively recently, then that’s something that we can always look at,” he said.

Bethany wants Simone’s legacy to be saving others.

“Simone had so much more to give, so it’s that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing because I know that she would have done this for me,” she said.