"IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE HOLIDAY OF A LIFETIME"

A year after losing their treasured daughters, Holly and Bianca, to methanol poisoning in Laos, their heartbroken parents want to make a difference. They share their struggles of the past year with The Weekly- and issue a grave warning to young travellers.

- SUE SMETHURST

It’s a moment frozen in time on social media that in equal measure warms the soul and breaks your heart – two gorgeous young women, full of life, laughing and waving as they zoom along a road in Laos on the back of motorbikes. With beaming smiles, Holly Morton-Bowles and her best friend Bianca Jones were having the time of their lives. Their mums, Samantha and Michelle, hope that one day they might visit that exact spot, where their daughters spent their carefree final days.

It’s been almost 12 months since the 19-year-olds from Melbourne tragically died after unwittingly consuming drinks laced with poisonous methanol in a tourist hotspot, Vang Vieng.

The deaths of these vibrant girls shocked the nation, an unthinkable tragedy from what should have been the most exciting chapter in the story of their young lives as they enjoyed a rite of passage like so many other young Australians.

But one year on, as teens just like their daughters are preparing for schoolies celebrations, summer holidays and gap year adventures, these raw, emotional and broken families are still waiting for answers about how their girls died, and offering a timely warning to travellers following in their girls’ footsteps.

"At the moment, there's absolutely nothing in place to stop this from happening to someone else's daughter or son," Bianca's father, Mark Jones, tells The Weekly. "Many young kids are travelling on a budget and looking for cheap alcohol. The message is simple: If it's too good to be true, it probably is. Don't touch it." "We need to warn people about what is happening," says Shaun Bowles.

"We need to make as much noise as we can so no other family goes through the hell we've been through."