A Tipping Point winner is furious after being 'banned' from a luxury holiday they won on the ITV quiz show.
Maxine Longmuir, 69, was delighted when she bagged the £2,500 trip to Portugal, but claims she was left devastated when she was told she was unable to rebook it after with being diagnosed with atrial fibrillation. Maxine says she was told she needed surgery and must not fly. She had been due to travel to the Domes Lake Algarve resort in Portugal with husband Graham Hewson, 67, for the seven-night break on April 19, but following her diagnosis of a fast or irregular heartbeat earlier last month, Maxine claims the resort was not willing to move her booking at all.
Speaking about how special the holiday was going to be ahead of her 70th birthday and wedding anniversary, she said: "It was one of the mystery prizes, it was the best prize I'd ever seen on the show. It was a fantastic feeling to win. It's our wedding anniversary and I turn 70 this year so it was supposed to be the perfect celebration.
"We haven't been able to take a holiday for five years and I'd booked coach tickets to the airport and arranged for a friend to come and look after our dogs. I'm so disappointed. It's maddening because they've had the PR from it, but I haven't got anything. I went back and told them some other dates I could do but the holiday company Destinology just said no," reports MailOnline.
When contacted by the Mirror, a spokesperson for Destinology said: "Our customers’ experience with us is of the highest importance, and we can confirm that we have been in talks with Mrs Longmuir since last week around new dates so that we can rearrange her holiday.
"The prize that was offered on Tipping Point was given by both Destinology and Domes Lake Algarve (Destinology covering the flight element). When Mrs Longmuir initially contacted us to let us know that she could no longer go on her holiday, our team contacted the hotel to try and move her dates, but unfortunately this was outside of the terms and conditions of the hotel prize offered by the hotel.
"After explaining Mrs Longmuir’s circumstances, the hotel has now agreed to move her stay to a date in the future, and Destinology will be rearranging her flights." The Mirror has also contacted ITV for comment.
Tipping Point has been on screens since 2012 and features contestants answering general knowledge questions to win tokens to play an arcade-style coin push machine to try and win a £10,000 jackpot.
Maxine went through six screening phone calls with producers and an hour-long Zoom meeting with other potential contestants before she was invited to film an episode in Bristol last April. To make matters worse she didn't even win any money on the show after getting a question wrong. However, she says she was still happy to meet Tipping Point host Ben Shephard, 48.
She explained: "I got through to the final two but answered a question wrong, it was about a Chancellor of the Exchequer and my mind just went blank. I still got what I wanted - I only went on there to get a hug with Ben. I'd never been on a TV show before."
In more quiz show drama for ITV, a Saturday Night Takeaway winner says she was left heartbroken when her paralysed dog was banned from a family holiday she'd won on the show.
Charity worker Tammy Fox, 43, who runs Pumpkin and Friends to raise awareness of disabled animals, was delighted when she found out she'd been gifted a dream getaway for four. However, the dream soon turned into a nightmare when she was told her beloved pooch, Pumpkin, couldn't come with her because the airline only allows assistance dogs on the aircraft.
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