By Emily Nash 1/02/2010
Rachel Chandler (Pic:AFP/Getty Images)
In a voice racked with despair, frail Rachel Chandler yesterday begged again to be rescued from pirates who have held her and husband Paul for more than three months.
The gaunt-looking 56-year-old, who believes she and Paul could be killed within days, pleaded: "Please help us, these people are not treating us well."
Her Somali captors allowed her to speak after a French news crew and a surgeon were granted access to the couple, who are being kept apart.
Rachel added: "I'm old, I'm 56 and my husband is 60 years old. We need to be together because we have not much time left. I need to be with Paul. We are husband and wife.
"We have always been together and we look after one another. We are not young people... It's very hard to keep going."
The Chandlers, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were captured while sailing to Tanzania from the Seychelles on their yacht, the Lynn Rival, on October 23.
The pirates have threatened to kill them if their ransom demands are not met. But the Foreign Office insists it does not pay ransoms to pirates.
The surgeon who examined the couple at their separate locations, Mohamed Helmi Hangul, said that Rachel was in poor mental and physical health.
He added that Paul had a "bad cough" and "seemed to have some fever". Mr Hangul said: "She is sick, she is very anxious, she suffers from insomnia. But I think she's mainly mentally unwell. She's very confused.
"She's always asking about her husband - 'Where's my husband?' - and she seems completely disorientated."
Mr Hangul added that he told the pirates they must look after the Chandlers, or the couple would die.
The pair are being held at separate locations between the coastal village of Elhur and the small town of Amara.
Paul Chandler (Pic:AFP/Getty Images)
Paul, a retired quantity surveyor, seems to be in better health than his wife but is also under extreme stress. He told the news crew: "Please help us, we have nobody to help us, we have no children.
"We have been in captivity for 98 days and we are not in a good condition. I just want to say please to my Government, get me and my wife out of here. We are innocent, we have done no wrong.
"We have no money and we can't pay a ransom. Day after day, and this is 98 days of solitary confinement, no exercise. I don't know what to do. Will somebody please help?"
Dr James Alvarez, hostage negotiator and clinical psychologist, said last night: "It's clear the kidnappers are trying to put pressure on the outside world to pay a ransom and get the Chandlers freed.
"I don't think they can believe these people don't have money." In a statement, the Foreign Office said: "We are monitoring the situation very carefully and are doing everything we can to help secure the safe release of Paul and Rachel."
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