The mum of a young lawyer who died after drinking alcohol suspected to be laced with methanol while holidaying in Laos fears she may never get answers.

Simone White, 28, from Orpington, was one of several people taken to hospital after an incident in the popular backpacking town of Vang Vieng.

Now her mother, Sue White, has told ITV news about the “soul-destroying” time spent at her daughter’s bedside before she had to turn off Simone’s life support.

It comes after the mother received a dreaded message from her daughter’s friend, Bethany, explaining that the pair were in hospital with acidosis.

After booking a flight to Laos, Sue said: “I thought, oh, she’s in a serious condition, but she’ll pull through and, you know, she’ll be in hospital for a few days.”

However, at 2am the night before her flight, she received a call from Bethany and one of the hospital doctors asking for permission to give Simone brain surgery.

“As soon as they said brain surgery I just knew she wasn’t going to make it. Like mother’s intuition … I just knew,” Sue added.

When she arrived in Laos after a 17-hour flight on her own, Sue received the news that the surgery hadn’t gone well after a CT scan revealed she only had 5% brain power, which by the following day had gone down to zero.

It was at this point both Bethany and Sue realised Simone was not going to survive.

In the subsequent days, the friend and mother sat at her bedside, talking to her and playing voice notes.

“I’m so grateful I was there by her bedside,” Sue said. “But it was absolutely soul destroying. Obviously that picture is going to be in my mind forevermore.”

To add to the mother’s nightmare, she was informed that due to religious reasons the doctors would not be able to switch of Simone’s life support for her, and the mother would need to do it herself.

Recalling this tragic moment, she said: “It was awful. I had my husband and my son on the end of the phone, but I was in the room on my own.

“I turned the machine off and then 30 seconds later the backup ventilator came into operation. It was just horrific.

“Nothing will ever compare to that … what we all had to go through in that hospital. It was just devastating.”

Remembering her daughter, who went to Wilmington Grammar School for Girls in Dartford, Sue said: “She was very extrovert, hugely popular … Loved to play hard and work hard. She was vibrant, sporty, musical.

“She just loved life and … used to make the most of every minute.”

In the last message Simone would send her mum before her death, this love for life was captured, when she text saying: ”It’s the best trip I’ve done, I’m having the time of my life.”

“And that’s the last time I heard from her,” Sue said.

The family are still searching for answers.

As part of the investigation, a number of hostel workers were detained, but Sue and Bethany told ITV the police in Laos are yet to provide them with answers.

They fear they will never know who is responsible for Simone’s death.

Sue said: “They’re not releasing any information, no statements or anything.

“I think it’s very unlikely any individual anyway, will be convicted of the crime ever.

“It’s unexplained as to why it affected Simone so much worse than (others) … we’ve got no answer to that at all.

“There’s been a post mortem, we’ve got no results of that. Whether it was her metabolism, and she processed it more quickly or differently to the others? We don’t know, but we’ve got no answers at all.”

She just loved life so much. She would have been furious to think her life would have been cut that short

The evening before Simone became ill she had been at the Nana Backpacker’s Hostel in Vang Vieng, Laos with Bethany and another friend.

Recalling this night, Bethany explained how she had watched the bartender pour shots from a “typical vodka bottle” before ordering Sprite to mix them with.

The hostel owner has previously denied that shots given at their bar were responsible for the mass poisoning.

During that evening, Bethany remembers ordering five or six shots over the course of two and half hours, and explained how it wasn’t until the next day that they started to feel unwell.

She said: “We just felt a bit off. I can’t really describe what exactly it was, but it wasn’t like your typical hangover.”

Bethany and Simone attended a swimming excursion, but they began to feel tired and “heavy”, and when Simone started being sick and Bethany fainted, they went to hospital.

While at hospital, Simone’s condition deteriorated and Bethany recalls how her friend’s breathing started to change.

Once transferred to a private hospital more than 24 hours after consuming the drinks, “it was just too late” said Bethany.

Now she has started a petition for UK schools to educate children about methanol poisoning.

Meanwhile, Sue is calling for testing strips to be made widely available for travellers so they can test their drink before consuming it.

Simone was one of six tourists who died after staying at the Nana Backpacker Hostel, which has since been closed down.

Sue said: ”Simone wouldn’t like her death to have been in vain. She just loved life so much. She would have been furious to think her life would have been cut that short.”