When Home and Away returns to Channel 5 after the holidays, the Stewart family will be heartbroken over Martha.
Fans were left with a dramatic cliffhanger as Tane Parata’s (Ethan Browne) stalker storyline came to a head at Martha’s (Belinda Giblin) huge mental health fundraising event during the Australian soap’s six-week absence from UK screens.
When UK viewers return to Summer Bay next week, they’ll be thrust back into the drama at the fundraiser, where Tane’s stalker has discharged a hazardous chemical around him, which is now leaking into surrounding air vents and through to Salt.
The fundraising continues late into the night in the new scenes, with the vapours filling the space. Martha is the first to discover she isn’t feeling well, but she dismisses it as the result of too much champagne.
A couple of the fundraising attendees decide to depart early for the night, oblivious to the fact that they are on the verge of fleeing an unknown peril. To the chagrin of Leah Patterson-Baker (Ada Nicodemou), Justin Morgan (James Stewart) and Jasmine Delaney (Sam Frost) also manage to sneak outdoors in order to accept a call from the recently-departed Tori on the balcony.
While Martha suffers inside, Irene Roberts (Lynne McGranger) sits next to her and begins to succumb to the vapours rising from above them – and things quickly deteriorate.
Later, in the hospital, Martha’s husband Alf (Ray Meagher) refuses to leave her side while she lies comatose, but he is pushed out as she begins to collapse, prompting all of the medical personnel to rush to her rescue.
Doctor Logan Bennett (Harley Bonner) breaks the bad news to Martha’s family that the poisons she was exposed to have destroyed her kidneys and lungs, and advises them to prepare for the worst.
Later in the week, Roo (Georgie Parker) discovers Alf asleep on a hospital visitor’s chair and attempts to persuade him to take a break from looking after Martha and go home to get some rest.
He grudgingly agrees, promising his daughter that she would phone him as soon as she receives any news concerning her mother’s condition.
Both Roo and Alf do their hardest to remain optimistic about Martha’s condition, but the wait for new information becomes torturous. Will Martha be able to make it?
Tane is also in a grave state after his poisoning incident, so Martha’s life isn’t the only one on the line.
