A former Love Island star has opened up about her shocking experience of being left barely breathing after having her drink spiked while having lunch with her friends.
Sharon Gaffka hit her head on a toilet and was found wedged behind a locked cubicle door after her drink was interfered with while out celebrating one of her friend's birthdays.
She said two male paramedics attended but passed her off as someone who had been 'over drinking' rather than a victim of spiking.
Ms Gaffka, who appeared on this year's edition of the ITV dating programme, has collected more than 1,000 testimonies for the Home Affairs Select Committee as part of an inquiry into spiking.
Recent research has shown a third of women have either been a victim of spiking or know someone who has, yet only 8 per cent of victims have reported the crime to the police.
A report by the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner found spiking made up 10 per cent of 'violence with injury' crimes, but only 10 per cent of cases have resulted in a positive drugs test, prompting the force to consult with scientists to better understand spiking.
Earlier this year the Home Secretary Priti Patel demanded an urgent update from police investigating the scale of the UK's 'spiking epidemic'.
The Home Affairs Select Committee launched an inquiry into the issue and is currently collecting evidence from victims of drink spiking.
Police chiefs were also tasked to urgently provide more information on their assessment of the scale of the problem after reports of incidents in several parts of the country, including Nottingham, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Groups from more than 30 universities around the UK recently joined an online campaign calling for the boycott of nightclubs, with campaigners seeking 'tangible' changes to make them safer, such as covers or stoppers for drinks, better training for staff and more rigorous searches of clubbers.
Sharon Gaffka, who appeared on this year's Love Island, has collected more than 1,000 testimonies from victims of drink spiking after being left barely breathing when her drink was interfered with
Ms Gaffka said two male paramedics attended after she collapsed but passed her off as someone who had been 'over drinking' rather than a victim of spiking
Speaking to ITV's Good Morning Britain this morning, Ms Gaffka said she has had her drink spiked on 'five or six occasions' since the age of 18.
She said, on one occasion, she was spiked with MDMA but most recently a 'date rape drug' was put into her drink when she was out for lunch with friends celebrating one of their birthdays soon after the first lockdown.
By 7pm that day, Ms Gaffka was taken to hospital after passing out in a cubicle and hitting her head on a toilet.
She told Good Morning Britain: 'I think we can recall exactly which drink it was and I can pass myself as quite a responsible drinker, I know my limits.
'I don't tend to wander off after I've started drinking and things like that, so the fact that I had been gone from the table for ten minutes was alarm bells to my friends and they remembered that we had gone to the toilet together but I never came out.'
Ms Gaffka said her friends went into the bathroom to find her and, after receiving no response, managed to pick the lock to the cubicle door with a pound coin.
She was found 'wedged between the door and the toilet' inside the cubicle before the paramedics arrived.
Host Richard Madeley said: 'But the paramedics basically said "no, no, she's had too much to drink, she needs to go sleep it off" so it wasn't taken seriously, was it?'
Ms Gaffka repiled: 'No. I think for me it was that two male paramedics arrived to look at me.
'I think maybe the NHS and paramedics do have a lot of incidences where people have been over drinking and then, you know.'
Ms Gaffka said the hospital she was taken to did not test for drugs in her system, but she was advised a week later that she should have gone to the police to be tested.
'But, I know what I'm like when I've been drinking,' she added. 'At this point, I couldn't tell you where I was, I couldn't tell you my name, I could barely stand.'
Ms Gaffka said she has used the testimonies from other victims to meet with her MP David Wantage to discuss what she thinks can be put in place to help victims of spiking
Dr Hilary Jones, health
