AN online fundraising appeal has been launched after a man fell ill moments after landing in Tenerife.

Paul McEwan flew to the Canary Islands to celebrate his birthday with friends.

However he was rushed to hospital where doctors discovered he had a gallstone lodged in his gallbladder, which caused pancreatitis and septicaemia.

Paul, of Largs, was rushed into surgery, which couldn't be completed after his heart stopped and he had to be resuscitated.

He then fell into a coma and, while on life support, his organs began to shut down. 

However a post on a GoFundMe page says Paul came through all of this and has undergone four operations so far.

It may be up to six months before Paul will be able to fly back to Scotland and now his friends are rasing money for his family to stay on the island to be by his side.

So far nearly £2,000 has been raised in under 24 hours.

Paul's friend Rebecca Ritchie wrote: "As you can imagine Paul's family will be staying out in Tenerife with him until he is on the road to recovery however this is will be very expensive for them.

"At the moment they are staying on a week to week basis but are looking to get a long term let so they can be on hand for whatever Paul needs."

She added: "On behalf of the McEwan family I would like to thank everyone for their thoughts and support during this extremely difficult time.

"No family expects to go through this situation but all the messages of support let's them know how blessed they are."