A mum who offered her timeshare holiday apartment booking on Facebook for free after being told she could not delay the trip to attend her dad's funeral has now had her points returned.

Self-employed catering manager Bernice Asante had booked a stay for herself, her husband Simon, and their four children, at the Kusadasi beach resort in Turkey for October half term, but found out that her dad's funeral service would be held in Ghana on October 29, the day after she was due to return home.

The 39-year-old Darland resident was told by Club La Costa, which members pay into in return for points to be exchanged for accommodation, that it was too short notice to get a refund for her booking or transfer it to a later date, and that she would lose all 700 points she spent on the trip if she cancelled.

She said last week: "The holiday runs until October 28, and my dad's funeral is in Ghana on October 29 so I would have to immediately travel there.

"I do wish they had postponed the holiday. I was upset that when you have a bereavement they won't consider it."

Bernice's dad, Francis Kofi Kushiator, was 95 when he died after spending his whole life in Africa. Bernice is the 15th of his 17 children.

Bernice became a member of Club La Costa in 2018, and since then has paid around £17,000 to the company.

She has taken her family-of-six on one holiday, in 2019, but has since been unable to go away due to the pandemic.

Because she did not take out insurance on the holiday, Bernice's only options were to cancel the trip and lose all of her payment, or pass the booking onto someone else by calling the timeshare club and giving them them the contact details of the person taking her place.

Rather than let the holiday go to waste, Bernice offered the apartment up for free on Facebook, saying that the lucky taker, who did not have to be a member of Club La Costa, would only have to pay for their own flights to Turkey.

Now, the company has offered to return Bernice the points and she has rebooked the family trip for next year instead.

That does mean her earlier offer to stay in Turkey for nothing has been withdrawn though.

Bernice said she struggled to find anyone who could take the booking, who was able to pay for the pricey plane tickets to the resort. Today she said: "So many people contacted me but they all complained about the ticket cost."

She was approached by Club La Costa following her initial complaint and speaking to KentOnline.

The mum-of-four said: "I'm very very excited. I will take the kids to Lanzarote next year in October."