A dream trip turned into a nightmare for an Australian couple exploring Canada.
Emma and Daniel Heritage, from Adelaide, Australia, set out on a two-year adventure to Canada in 2022. Unfortunately, just a few months into their journey, tragedy struck.
Emma and Daniel, both 28 and passionate about climbing, visited the scenic Banff National Park.
During a rock climbing session, Daniel, who was connected to Emma by a slack rope, lost his balance.
He was several meters above Emma when she saw him fall down the cliff towards her, where she was secured to an anchor.
Reflecting on the tragic moment, Emma told The Advertiser: “He landed near where I was, it just happened, he didn’t yell or make any noise. There was a lot of bleeding from his mouth, he very quickly lost consciousness and he wasn’t responsive.”
Emma immediately called 911, and an emergency helicopter was dispatched to rescue them.
However, before the helicopter landed, Emma realized she had lost her husband in the freak accident.
“I knew when the rescuers first directed the plan to get me down before Daniel,” she shared.
“I think that was probably one of the most heartbreaking moments for me because I had to step away from him.”
As the sole witness to the tragic event, Emma had to relive the ordeal while providing testimony for a Coroner’s Report in Canada to rule out ‘foul play’.
In addition to her grief, Emma faced the financial burden of bringing Daniel’s body back to Australia – expenses not covered by their travel insurance.
“I arranged to get him sent to a local funeral home, the biggest issue was I needed to get Daniel home to his family,” Emma said.
“But they weren’t going to start the process of getting him home until I paid a deposit and that was about 12 grand [$8,044 USD]”.
Daniel’s mother eventually covered the deposit.
The total costs included $8,000 dollars [$5,363 USD] to transport Daniel’s body back to Australia, and an additional $15,000 [$10,056 USD] for the funeral.
Overall, Emma estimated the expenses amounted to over $50,000 [$33,520 USD].
To help with the overwhelming costs, Emma’s twin sister set up a GoFundMe page, where generous supporters raised over $42,000 AUD for the family.