Hi there. the site is back up and the hosting company was able to correct the issue. They said the website was connecting to the wrong database. the explanation was a bit technical for me to understand. They mentioned it could be an issue with scripts and also websites generally need optimizing all the time. I couldnt get her to pin down if it was a plugin issue or something else.
But since the website is back up and running with nothing lost i cant complain too much. Thanks for getting back in touch. Sorry if i was a bit panicky earlier.