Shaun Bowles and Mark Jones went on the trip of a lifetime 25 years ago. While following in their footsteps, their daughters died

The father of methanol poisoning victim Holly Bowles has revealed he and her friend’s father went on a similar trip 25 years ago.

Holly and her best friend Bianca Jones, both 19, died in hospitals in Thailand last month after unknowingly consuming methanol-laced drinks while travelling during a gap year in Vang Vieng, Laos.

Four other international travellers also died and several others fell sick in the mass drink-spiking event in the popular tourist town.

Shaun Bowles and Mark Jones travelled the same area together 25 years ago, and are leaning on each other in the aftermath of their daughters’ deaths.

“When we’re together, there’s some comfort,” Shaun told the BBC’s Emma Barnett on the Today program.

“It’s just bizarre to be going through the same thing with your best friends, but we are and just being together and just talking helps us get through.

“It just helps us get through the days.”

Losing their daughters has been “horrible”, Shaun told the BBC.

“It’s something that you wouldn’t wish upon anybody.

“What we’re going through at the moment, it’s just horrendous.

“When you lose your daughter at such a young age ... I don’t think there’s anything worse.”

Holly was “just full of life”, her father said.

“She was confident, she was loving, she was just a true friend to people.

“She was everything you want your daughter to be.

“So it’s devastating for us.

“Holly would talk to (her mother) Sam every second, if not every, day.

“We would talk every, you know, third day or so, but they were having an unbelieveable time.

“They were just having so much fun.

“And doing what two 19-year-old girls should be doing, they were just having an absolute blast.

“It was just horrendous for it to end the way that it did.”

The family was alerted to Holly and Bianca’s conditions after a friend of theirs reached out to one of their Australian friends, who in turn contacted their families, Shaun said.

“There was so much going on, and when you’re getting secondhand information it was really hard to process exactly what sort of condition that they were in.”

The family was not initially told the girls were suffering from methanol poisoning, Shaun said.

“We were told a lot of things,” he said.

“But it wasn’t until they started doing blood tests and all the rest that we were aware of what it was.

“We were just devastated. Still are. That that had happened.

“It was, you know, as it would be when you hear that your daughter is not going to pull through.

“It was, I think, devastation is probably the only word to — disbelief — to describe what was happening to us.”

The Bowles and Jones families want to raise awareness amongst travellers in areas where methanol poisoning is a risk, Shaun said.

A GoFundMe campaign was created to help support the families with the financial costs of bringing their girls home, but will also be used to help them raise this awareness.

Family members said funds raised would support existing initiatives and fund new awareness campaigns.

The families are also determined to get justice for their daughters, Shaun said.

“We absolutely want whoever is responsible for this brought to account and brought to justice,” Shaun said.

“And we’re going to do everything that we can to make sure that is the case, because someone, somewhere, has done the wrong thing.

“And they need to be held to account.

“So we will put as much energy, when the time is right, to doing that.

“As far as how confident I am, we’ve got the Australian Federal Police who have been with us from the start who have been outstanding.

“They are still in contact with us. I know that they’ve offered their assistance to the Laos police, which I don’t believe to date has been accepted but we certainly hope that they do.”

The Bowles family has had no support from the Laos government, Shaun said.

“They reached out through the Australian Federal Police and offered their condolences but that’s as much as we’ve got from them to date.

“Nothing else.

“We’re going to keep at this until we find out who was responsible for it.”