The heartbroken mother of a woman who collapsed and died on a family holiday has revealed she could have been saved – by delayed test results.

Melissa Kinsella, 30, was at the airport waiting to fly home from a holiday in Turkey when she collapsed and had a massive seizure and cardiac arrest. Her devastated family and friends raised over £50,000 to bring her back to the UK, but she was pronounced dead just hours after landing back in Merseyside.

Mother-of-three Melissa died on May 26 and her family were desperate to know why the previously healthy mum had died so suddenly. Then, two months later Melissa’s cousin, Nicole, found out she has a genetic heart condition called Long QT Syndrome.

Following tests, it was found that Melissa also had the same condition. Melissa’s mother, Michelle Heathcote, now believes that Nicole’s test results, which took seven months to process, could have saved her daughter’s life.

Melissa was an only child and came from a loving family in Merseyside (Photo: Focus Features)

The 51-year-old said: “We had no idea Nicole was being tested. She’d had her own health issues last year and was tested in December. NHS guidelines recommend three months for test results.

“If that was the case, Melissa would have been tested, as a relative, and her life might have been saved. Because of the delay, I have lost my only daughter, and her three little girls are left without a mummy. It is absolutely tragic.”

Michelle spoke out to raise awareness of the “killer condition” and to stress the “vital” importance of processing test results as quickly as possible.

Melissa was mother to Chloe, nine, Beau, four and Romi, two, when she and her partner, Jay, booked a holiday to Turkey in May earlier this year. Michelle, from the Wirral, said: “Melissa was my only child, and we were incredibly close.

“She had a heart of gold, she was always happy to help people out. She was bubbly and chatty too. She worked in hair and beauty, but her priority was always her children. She loved being a mum.”

She said: “Melissa was fit and healthy, but she’d had two seizures in the months before her death. She had tests and was reassured there was nothing wrong, but of course the doctors were not looking for a heart defect at that stage.”