A young peninsula mum has branded Ryanair's staff a 'disgrace' after being forced to wait 26 hours at a Polish airport without any hot food or milk for her 17-month-old son.

Lauren Watts, who is mixed race, could not rule out a suggestion that racism may have been a factor in the way she was treated, and forcing her to borrow £1,000 to get home.

Mrs Watts, from Shotley Gate, had gone on a mini-break to Poland with her toddler son Otis, and mum Rachel Double but had to cut the trip short when the Polish government announced it was closing its borders.

With food shops, bars, restaurants and cafes closing down around them, the trio made their way to the airport hoping, like many other British tourists, to be repatriated earlier than planned.

However, staff at the check-in at Krakow airport, refused to help them, saying they were not a priority, while allowing other passengers to book and board flights ahead of them.

Some passengers, including a stag party of 18 men, offered to stay behind and allow Lauren, her young child and mum, to go ahead of them, but the check in staff refused.

"It was a complete nightmare, said Mrs Watts. "I have never been treated so disgustingly in my life.

"How they can treat humans like completely escapes me.

"They showed a complete disregard for their duty of care and did nothing.

""I'm not sure why, it is fair to say there were no other black, or mixed race people there – just us.

"The only thing that set us apart from the other passengers was that I'm mixed race. So, make of that what you will."

Mrs Watts and Mrs Double had to borrow £1,000 to pay for the flights home, after booking an alternative escape route home.

Mrs Watts said easyJet staff had a completely different approach and member of their staff heard and saw what was happening and offered to get her home.

Thinking there was no direct flight back to Stansted Mrs Watts bought tickets from easyJet to Paris, and an onward flight to the UK.

Eventually after a 26 hour wait, the family were put on a flight home by Ryanair and eventually arrived back n Shotley 36 hours after setting off from the hotel.

Mrs Watts, who has tried to reclaim a refund or compensation and make a complaint about their treatment, has not had any response so far from the airline.

She is furious at the whole episode and regrets booking with Ryanair, wishing she had booked with EasyJet, or another airliner, instead.

Mrs Watts said: "There was no reason to be like that, while easyJet were helping their customers and even offered to get us home, Ryanair staff were horrible to us.

"I have no idea why they were being like that to us. They knew the border was closing and every other airline was still flying.

"People were getting flights to places like Geneva, just to get out of Poland, and then getting home from there.

"I looked at going to Geneva but just could not afford the flight.

"In the end, we had to book a flight to Paris with easyJet because we were told we could not get a flight home with Ryanair."

The family's torrid time started as soon as they arrived at the airport and were forced to sleep on the floor overnight.

Mrs Watts said: ""We got to the airport but as soon as they filled their flights to the UK, they turned the lights off, closed the shutters and then said they could not speak English.

"We had queued up twice and got sent away claiming we had pushed in, but we had not.

"Ryanair told us we were not a priority, whereas easyJet were treating all their customers as a priority and a member of the easyJet staff even came over and said she would try and get us a flight, while Ryanair did nothing."

The whole situation was made worse for the anxious mum, when she could not get food for Otis, or warm his milk bottle.

"We got there at 5.30 and had to stay there all night. There was no food, the coffee machine was broken," said Mrs Watts.

"All we could get was Coke, crips and some sweets. There was nothing hot, we could not heat up Otis' bottle. We asked staff to borrow their microwave but they did not want to know.

"We eventually got a flight at 8pm the following night. We were at the airport for 26 hours, and altogether it took us 36 hours to get home."

The trio had stayed with Q Hotel Plus Krakow, hoping to take in Auschwitz among their sightseeing trip, but that had been closed due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Mr Watts said: "The hotel staff were really helpful and did what they could but they had to close the restaurant, so we could not get food there either.

"We called the insurance company but because we weren't in quarantine we could not claim."

Ryanair have been approached for a response but have so far not commented on Mrs Watts' case, sending Nub News only this automated statement on Sunday.

"Due to the Covid-19 crisis, we are currently dealing with customer-focused communications. The Ryanair press office won't respond to media queries at present.

"We will get back to you as soon as possible."

In August last year Which? magazine rated Ryanair the worst airline for customer service, according to about 4,000 people surveyed.

The survey looked at 100 British brands from all industries: airline companies, energy and telecoms providers, banks, high street stores. Airlines and providers fared the worst, with Ryanair being voted the absolute worst in its understanding of customer service, specifically when it comes to handling complaints.

Expressions, including greedy, arrogant and sneaky, were used to describe the airline's customer service, with most of those surveyed saying Ryanair puts their own interests and profits, above everything else.

Complaining does not seem to help much either. In the survey, Ryanair also received the lowest rating possible for handling complaints, with 50 per cent of respondents giving it the lowest rating possible.