The trouble started when, while in Spain, a bus left without him, carrying away his travel bag, which contained crucial medication and his passport.
Scott Graham of Victoria was last seen in Madrid on July 15. His worried family says there has been no sign since of 67-year-old Graham, who relies on daily anti-rejection medication following a kidney transplant.
Graham was separated from his medication on July 11 and his family does not know if he was able to replace it.
He did not show up for his July 29 flight home from Amsterdam to Vancouver.
Graham’s family contacted Canadian and Spanish authorities in a so far fruitless attempt to find him.
“This is really scary. This is really serious,” daughter Georgia Graham said from Montreal on Tuesday.
She is frustrated and fearful after dealing with agencies which she feels haven’t moved promptly enough.
Georgia worries her father, who has experienced minor strokes and might have some cognitive impairment, could be in hospital somewhere, unidentified.
His family is asking people to share information about Scott Graham on social media. He is five-foot nine-inches tall, 165 pounds, with blue eyes and grey-white hair.
To contact the family, email [email protected].
Graham is close to his family and normally contacts them daily through WhatsApp but he has been silent for more than two weeks, Georgia said.
Graham, who is retired, went to the Netherlands to meet with friends he made many years ago while travelling in Europe as a teenager, his daughter said. He headed off on his own, staying at hotels and hostels to visit Portugal and Spain, and planned to return to Amsterdam to fly home.
He is a friendly person who will talk to anyone, Georgia said. “It was really exciting for him to go on this trip.”
On July 11, he was on a bus from Vigo, on Spain’s northwest coast, to San Sebastian,Georgia said.
He got off the bus at a rest stop, presumably planning to get back on. But the bus left without him and carried away his travel bag. The bag held his life-saving medication — the anti-rejection pills for his kidney transplant — as well as his passport and phone. Graham’s transplant took place in 2014.
Georgia said her father, who was likely carrying cash, was able to reach San Sebastian.
He contacted his brother on WhatsApp, saying he had been unable to get his bag from the bus company and went to the police station to report the bag was missing. That is the last time the family heard from him.
Spanish police recommended he go to Madrid for a new passport.
On July 15, Graham was at La Paz University Hospital in Madrid for treatment to injuries to his hand and head — he told them he had fallen, Georgia said. The family suspects he may have been dealing with side-effects from being without his medication, possibly made worse because of a heatwave.
On the same day, Graham went to the Canadian Embassy in Madrid where he filled out a form for a new passport. He was supposed to return on July 18 to pick up the document but did not show up.
He said he could not recall passwords or phone numbers for family, Georgia said. However, he did put her email address on the passport application as a contact in case of emergency.
“This is the last place he was identified in person,” the family said in a timeline they put together.
The family reported him missing on July 16, Georgia said.
The Madrid hospital won’t speak to the family, releasing confirmation of his visit to Spanish police but not providing further details, she said.
Georgia spoke with a nurse at the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria in a kidney clinic, who had taken a call from a nurse in Spain about Graham on July 15. The Spanish nurse wanted to know what medication and dose he was supposed to have.
The information was passed on and the call was ended from the Spanish end, Georgia said.
It’s not known if Graham received the medication.
Georgia said the family filed two missing person reports with Victoria police, who have told her there has been no activity on his credit or debit cards.
Global Affairs Canada said in a statement it is aware that an individual is missing in Spain. “Consular officials are in contact with local authorities to gather additional information.”
> Canadians in need of emergency consular assistance can contact Global Affairs Canada’s Emergency Watch and Response Centre by calling 1-613-996-8885, by text message at 1-613-686-3658, by email at [email protected], or via WhatsApp at 1-613-909-8881.
