A Tipping Point contestant who won a holiday on Ben Shepherd’s hit ITV game show has been left gutted after the resort rejected her request to reschedule her trip.
Maxine Longmuir, 69, may not have won the cash prize when she filmed her episode of Tipping Point with Ben Shepherd back in April last year, but she did walk away with a mystery prize; a holiday to Portugal.
The player from Bournemouth in Dorset has been left gutted, however, when she was told she couldn’t reschedule the holiday after she was diagnosed with a shock medical condition.
The athlete’s diagnosis of atrial fibrillation—a cardiac ailment that produces an erratic and frequently excessively high heart rate—forced her to cancel the planned vacation to Portugal, where she had hoped to celebrate her 70th birthday.
While Maxine tried to reschedule the trip, she claims she was told by the holiday company that it could not be rebooked, meaning she hasn’t got to enjoy the prize she won on the show.
Speaking to the Daily Mail about the ordeal, Maxine said: “It was one of the mystery prizes, it was the best prize I’d ever seen on the show. It was a fantastic feeling to win. It’s our wedding anniversary and I turn 70 this year so it was supposed to be the perfect celebration.”
She went on: “We haven’t been able to take a holiday for five years and I’d booked coach tickets to the airport and arranged for a friend to come and look after our dogs. I’m so disappointed. It’s maddening because they’ve had the PR from it, but I haven’t got anything.”
Maxine claims that when she went back to the holiday company Destinology with some other dates she could book, they “just said ‘no’.”
What makes the blow even harder is that the Tipping Point player almost made it to the final round, being eliminated from the game just before the final hurdle.
“I got through to the final two but answered a question wrong,” she said: “It was about a Chancellor of the Exchequer and my mind just went blank.”
Maxine, while upset about the holiday, is still happy she took part in the show and even more thrilled she got to meet Ben Shepherd, who has been hosting the game show since it started in 2012.
“I still got what I wanted,” she told the publication: “I only went on there to get a hug with Ben. I’d never been on a TV show before.”