A HUSBAND and wife from Barry are hoping a ‘rescue flight’ will bring them home after Spanish authorities placed the country in coronavirus lockdown part-way through their holiday.

Simon Dennis and Shelly McCarthy Dennis, of the Colcot, and Mrs Dennis’ mother, Kay McCarthy, flew to Tenerife, from Bristol airport, on Tuesday, March 10 – days before attempts began to try and contain the spread of coronavirus

Semi-retired driver, Mr Dennis, 57, and community social care worker, Kay, 51, got married in September last year and booked the holiday and easyJet flight just before Christmas as a mid-winter break.

Mr Dennis said: “We have been to Tenerife before and really love the place.

“We were due to fly back on Friday, March 20.

“We are staying at Amarilla Golf and Country Club Apartments in San Miguel de Abona.

“Our first few days we were able to enjoy getting around and doing what we normally do on holiday.

“Then by Friday (March 13) we were hearing that Tenerife was going to be put into lockdown to try and contain the spread of coronavirus.

“We went out on Saturday morning and were in a local cafe and the local ex-pats were saying that it was due to come into force at 8am Monday morning.

“We went to a local shop and managed to buy a couple of items to get us through a day or two - which included beer, bread, chocolate, cider and munchies.

“We then went for a meal to our onsite restaurant and they informed us that we would be in total lockdown from midnight.

“That meant that we had to stay in our apartment and would only be allowed out if we needed to get medicines, food, or money from a bank/cashpoint.”

Mr Dennis added: “We have been trying to follow the news on TV and have joined a couple of local Tenerife groups on Facebook to try and get some information.

“We have three British channels on our TV, UNO and a few magazines to keep us occupied.

“Our complex then decided on Sunday morning after a couple of meetings that they would open the pool bar daily for residents from 9am to 9pm for food and drinks.

“We did have an email from easyJet informing us that we could change our flight, free of charge, but after checking their website, we found out that there were no other flights available.

“The next we knew there was talk of airlines cancelling flights and people panicking about how they were going to get home.

“We checked our booking on Sunday afternoon through the easyJet website and discovered that our flight was one of the flights that had been cancelled.

“There was a message to say that rescue flights would be made available on Monday.

“We managed to book onto the first rescue flight back to Bristol which is scheduled for Thursday.

“There is still talk of flights being grounded by the Spanish Government so we are just hoping we get our flight before if that happens.

“We still have no idea if we will have to self-isolate when we get back.

“We also have a holiday booked for Florida later in the year,” he said. “Looking at how things are all over the world now we are unsure if we even want to go!”