Laura Plummer, 33, was given a three-year term on Boxing Day for possessing 290 Tramadol tablets for boyfriend Omar Caboo’s bad back.
The shop assistant is being held in a holding room at a police station in the Red Sea resort of Hurgharda, just five minutes from where she was staying.
Her family face an anxious wait to find out where Laura will serve her sentence and fear she will be sent to the notorious Qena jail.
They have now been told they must wait two months before they can begin the appeal process – and it could take another 10 months to reach court.
Her sister Rachel Plummer, 31, admitted they are not pinning much hope on an appeal but said: “If she can cope the last three months she will do this – she’s stronger then we think.
But she added: “I’m just scared for her. I’m so sorry for her.
“It kills me that we can’t do anything to help her. She’s on my mind every second. I hate waking up in a morning to feel the way I feel again – it’s horrible feeling so helpless not knowing what my sister is going through every day.”
Laura’s mum Roberta Synclair visited her daughter at the police station on Thursday, where she was taken after one night in notorious Qena jail.
Rachel said: “She’s obviously frightened but she’s OK.
“The room she was in was better then the previous cell and the police were very good with Laura and my mum. Very professional.
“It was fine – there was a bed and Laura had a blanket and a cushion that we had brought her on a previous trip.
“Mum is distraught and heartbroken but if Laura can cope she can cope. “We say we are living a nightmare but it will be nothing compared to Laura’s.
“But my mum could see Laura was coping OK. She just wants to get her head down and do her time now.
“The sooner it’s done the sooner she can come home and get back to work which is all Laura wants.”
However Laura’s family, from Hull, East Yorks., still face an agonising wait as they still do not know which prison she will be transferred to permanently.
Rachel said: “We’re just so disappointed we didn’t get her home on Boxing Day. It’s horrible – we’ve not had a Christmas because of it and we won’t be celebrating New Year.
“My dad wished me a happy Christmas but then went on to say ‘I know none of us are going to have a happy Christmas but it’s the thing to say’.
“We just wanted Laura back – we said we’ll celebrate when she comes home.” Meanwhile, a former inmate at an Egyptian prison where Laura could serve her time has filmed the hellhole conditions on a smuggled phone.
Laura is currently in Hurghada but British DJ Pete Farmer, said all foreign female prisoners serving sentences similar to hers are transferred to al-Qanater prison, where he served his time.
The 45-year-old, who lived in Sharm El Sheikh for 11 years, was locked up for two years for robbery after he accidentally picked up the wrong bag in a pub, he claims.
Pete, now staying in Essex with family, said: “I’m a man and I just got through my sentence. For her as a woman – my heart bleeds for her.
“The conditions are absolutely horrendous. Disease is rife, there are cockroaches and lice and bedbugs.
“It is very, very violent. I can recall being in a line and seeing people being beaten and burned on their private parts with cattle prods. “It’s horrendous.
“In my cell there were four sets of bunk beds, each three levels high – so that’s 12 people – with another 15 to 18 on the floor.”