A FRUSTRATED couple desperate to be reunited are warning other people not to be seduced by dreams of a new life in the sun.

Hopes of a fresh start in Turkey turned into a "living nightmare" for Mark and Karen Lewis who, after a month of being apart, are still battling red tape to bring their family back together in Kidderminster.

Mrs Lewis is being forced to stay in France with her daughter, Stephenie, 12 and stepdaughter, Zoe, 14, for six months due to quarantine regulations delaying the re-entry of their three pet cats and dog to the UK.

Mr and Mrs Lewis's wedding was featured in the Shuttle/Times & News two years ago, as the bride was accompanied up the aisle by her border collie-German shepherd cross, Defer.

Mr Lewis, staying temporarily with his mother in Lionfields Road, Cookley, is trying to set up home for when the family returns to Kidderminster.

He said: "You always see Turkey advertised heavily as the new up and coming place and we thought it would be the perfect country, which was also cheap and affordable, to make a new start."

Mrs Lewis, however, said costs of their apartment in Alanya escalated and they also lost money in a failed business venture.

The couple were unable to send their children to school while in Turkey because, said Mrs Lewis, the scholarship fees more than doubled.

After nine months, the couple felt they were unable to take any more and decided to return to their home town.

Mrs Lewis said: "We were looking forward to embracing a new country and learning about and living in a different culture.

"Not in a million years would I have thought that moving to Turkey with my family and pets would have been such a disastrous experience, a living nightmare."

Mrs Lewis and the children are now staying in Brittany, France, for the quarantine period before they return to Cookley as they do not have the money to put the pets into quarantine in the UK.

Mrs Lewis said: "I e-mailed Tony Blair to see if he can help one of his British people.

"We are just one family though, a drop in the ocean. This sort of thing happens all the time."