'Don't let it be your best friend that dies from methanol poisoning'

The best friend of a woman who died from methanol poisoning on holiday has called on the government to do more to educate teenagers in schools about the dangers of drinking alcohol abroad.

Bethany Clarke was travelling in Laos in south-east Asia with childhood friend Simone White when they drank free shots they were offered in a hostel in November.

The following day, they both became unwell and initially thought they had food poisoning. But, a few days later, 28-year-old Simone died in hospital.

The Department for Education have been ed for a comment about Bethany's petition.

Simone, who was from Orpington in south-east London, and Bethany planned to stay in Cambodia for just under two weeks, and spend four days in Laos.

They fell ill after drinking six vodka shots served to them at the Nana Backpackers hostel in traveller hotspot Vang Vieng.

Five other tourists also died after drinking at the hostel.

Their drinks are thought to have contained methanol - a deadly substance often found in bootleg alcohol.

Medical specialists say drinking as little as 25ml of methanol can be fatal, but it is sometimes added to drinks because it is cheaper than alcohol.

But Bethany, 28, tells BBC Newsbeat they didn't even realise anything was wrong until the next day.

"This all happened on the fourth day of the trip. We did the tubing that day and that was good," she says.

"It's difficult to obviously describe the timeline. I think when I realised it was all going wrong was when we were on the kayaks for a trip we were doing the following morning. So just over 12 hours on.

"I guess that was when me and Simone were flat on the back of these kayaks, not being able to use our arms. We were just literally staring up into space.

"That was a moment where I thought I really don't understand what's happening to us. It just seemed like I was just having to accept my fate."

Bethany says even when they tried to get help, it took them a while to be treated for methanol poisoning and they had to search for information about it themselves.

"The doctors kept saying it was food poisoning, which obviously didn't help with trying to treat what was going on," she says.

"This is when our other friends said 'let's get to a private hospital'. In the ambulance on the way there our friend mentioned to the paramedic 'could it be methanol poisoning":[]}