Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 21, 2019 Page 31
A BRITISH tourist severed
an artery while using a 72ft
‘extreme’ waterslide.
Jade Graves, 29, lost four
pints of blood and needed a
transfusion as well as an opera-
tion to repair the blood vessel.
The incident happened on the
Space Jam slide at Aqua Paradise
Water Park in Nessebar, Bulgaria.
Miss Graves said she followed
advice from the lifeguard on duty
to cross her arms and legs on the
slide but at the end she felt intense
pain in her lower pelvis and saw
her legs ‘running with blood’.
She became ‘faint and breath-
less’ and was taken to hospital in
nearby Burgas for surgery.
The bleeding led to haemor-
rhagic shock – when body cells are
deprived of oxygen – and second-
ary anaemia.
The rupture to the artery in her
groin is thought to have been
caused by water pressure.
She said: ‘I still can’t believe
what happened to me on that
slide. I was meant to be having alovely holiday with my family but
the whole experience has been
traumatising. I am still uncertain
as to what happened exactly
because I followed all the rules. Idon’t want anyone else to have to
go through what I have.’
Miss Graves, a mother of one,
was on holiday with her mother
Tina, brother Khalem Peacockand partner Simon Barrett. She
spent four days in hospital in
Bulgaria before being discharged
and flying home to Hull. She had
to take five weeks off from her
retail job to recover.
She is now taking legal action
against Aqua Paradise, which says
on its website that its 25 slides are
‘the most modern type, ensuring
security and reliability’.
The 72ft Space Jam slide is listed
as one of the park’s most intense,
with two drops and a horizontal
middle section.
It ends in a narrow half-tube
filled with water rather than a
plunge pool. Miss Graves’s lawyersIrwin Mitchell said in a statement:
‘A young woman has sustained
horrific injuries during what was
meant to be a fun and relaxing
time. Jade’s life has been
completely turned upside down
with her suffering mentally as well
as physically.’
The firm is aware of a least one
previous injury on the same slide,
involving a girl of nine, before Miss
Graves’s ordeal in July last year.
Swimmers can hit speeds of
30mph-plus on water slides and
injuries around the world have
included shattered limbs, rup-
tured organs and a broken neck.
[email protected]By Richard MarsdenTourist severs artery
in waterslide horror
FOR most mothers of 26-year-old gradu-
ates, having your daughter’s new boy-
friend coming to stay would make for an
exciting weekend.
But not for the mother of Nick Knowl-
es’s new girlfriend, who has expressed
her shock at the lovers’ 30-year age gap
and said she is ‘unlikely to meet him’.
The 56-year-old DIY SOS presenter, who
is a twice-divorced father of four, has
been dating PR executive Emily Hallinan
for several months.
The pair had kept their relationship
secret but decided to go public over the
weekend, when Miss Hallinan called her
parents to tell them about her older
lover. Her surprised mother Philippa,
also 56, said: ‘She told us about Nick –
there is rather a big age gap between
them. But we’ve not met him and I don’t
think it’s likely we will meet him.’
She confirmed the pair met through
work while Miss Hallinan, who is the
same age as Knowles’s own daughter, ans, they are well-liked and respected in
the village and in Cardiff because of
their legal connections. The family have
lived in Radyr since the year dot although
Sir Lincoln and his wife passed away
many years ago now.
‘I don’t know what he would have
made of his granddaughter going out
with a fellow twice her age.’
Knowles, who appeared on last year’s
I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, has a
son Eddie, five, with his second wife Jes-
sica, whom he divorced in 2017.
She later accused him of abusing her,
and forcing her to endure ‘years of
intimidation, emotional cruelty... and
isolation’, which he furiously denied. He
also has two children – daughter Tues-
day, 26, and son Charles, 25 – with his
first wife Gillian. And he fathered Tyrian-
J, 24, during his two-year relationship
with beauty therapist Paula Beckett.
Knowles’s representatives were
approached for comment.By Alisha Rouse
Showbusiness CorrespondentFamily: Emily, 26, with her parentsTogether: Nick Knowles with new girlfriend Emily Hallinan in west LondonMind the age gap!
Nick Knowles, 56,
and his girlfriend
30 years younger
Family: Emily 26 with her parents‘She’s an adult and
doesn’t live here’Trauma: Jade Graves lost four pints of blood at Aqua Paradisewas on a PR assignment with her previ-
ous job. She graduated from the Univer-
sity of Manchester with a BA in manage-
ment four years ago.
Her father Luke, a lawyer, added: ‘We
know about [Knowles] but she’s an adult
and doesn’t live here any more. As far as
we know there isn’t a relationship but
you’d better ask her really.’
Miss Hallinan’s family have lived in the
village of Radyr, near Cardiff, for gener-
ations and are well known for working
in the legal profession.
Her late grandfather Sir Lincoln
Hallinan was a respected stipendiary
magistrate and Crown Court judge. One
local said: ‘Everyone knows the Hallin-Picture: NASH/BACKGRIDVI