TWO emergency service workers from Kendal who found themselves stranded in Dubai amid the coronavirus outbreak have now returned home.

Nurse Rosie Addison, 25, and sister Jenny, 28, a police officer, had a ‘rescue flight’ arranged for them and arrived back home on Saturday.

Rosie said: “It never felt so good to be back in England, and just to have the small things back like your own bed, and just to be able to get water from a tap.

“It’s the small things that you appreciate, and obviously being with our families as well.”

The pair flew out to The Philippines for a holiday on March 7 but booked in-demand flights home after the Government advised those abroad to return to the UK.

They spent four days stuck at Dubai International Airport after being told they were unable to catch their onward flights.

“The first 24 to 48 hours was when people were still on the floor, food was a bit sparse, we didn’t know when we were getting fed and things like that. By the third day it seemed like they’d got a bit more organised," said Rosie.

“On the third day, some people got their luggage back. But again they kind of chopped and changed their minds constantly and really frequently, so they’d let 20 people get their luggage and then just all of a sudden decide ‘no-one’s getting their luggage’.

"Even when people were telling them ‘I have medication in my luggage’, they just kind of disregarded that, that didn’t matter.

“Food became more regular. However, even though they’ve got a giant Tannoy system it wasn’t utilised, so you’d hear someone in passing say ‘there’s food at gate B16’, so you’d just all run to B16 and wait for the food.

“Sometimes it wouldn’t turn up for an hour or two. At first it wasn’t really regulated, so people were taking more than one box, which meant the people who were last weren’t really getting any.”

Eventually they were informed by the British Embassy that there was a flight going ahead to get them back to the UK via Croatia.

Rosie said that, soon after they had paid for the Croatia to London leg of their journey, they were informed it was a ‘full rescue flight’. She added the pair would need to contact the airline to see if they could get the money back.