A mum-of-two has told how her life hung in the balance after she was bitten by a spider while drinking a hot chocolate in a garden centre.

Tracey Vincent fell unconscious at home two days later and needed paramedics to take her to hospital, where she spent the next three weeks.

Tracey was wearing sandals when she was bitten above the toes on her right foot, with the venom causing blisters the size of tennis balls on her leg.

She told Metro.co.uk that at one point in hospital it was ‘50/50’ whether she would survive the infection that caused swelling up to her knee.

Tracey, 51, was told by consultants that she had been bitten by a spider, which was most likely a false widow.

She was hospitalised in October 2018 and still suffers from swelling in her leg as a result of the nip.

The online administrator, from Ashford, Kent, spoke about her ordeal after reading Metro.co.uk’s story about another woman who was left in hospital for two weeks having suffered a spider bite in her garden.

‘I was with my parents just having a relaxing time at the garden centre, I was having a hot chocolate and it felt like something had pinched me on the foot and within seconds my whole leg just went numb,’ Tracey said.

‘I carried on drinking and I had pins and needles for a few minutes, and it went. In the evening there was a puffy, purple area with fluid.’

Tracey couldn’t get a doctor’s appointment but was told to take pain relief by the surgery’s receptionist over the phone.

She began to experience flu symptoms two days later and went to bed shivering and shaking uncontrollably. The following day she felt freezing cold and asked her son to put the heating on.

‘I don’t remember any more,’ Tracey said.

‘My partner came home because he couldn’t get through on the phone and he thought something was wrong.

‘I was unconscious so he rang the paramedics, and the next thing I knew they were at my bedside hooking me up to intravenous drips and I was rushed to hospital with sepsis.

‘The first week I don’t remember much, I was on all these drips and they said my blood was 97% infected, it was 50/50 whether I would make it or not.’

The hospital consultants found two fang marks above her toes and another bite on her right leg.

‘My leg was red and burning, with blisters the size of tennis balls,’ she said.

‘It swelled to 63cm in diameter and the pain was horrendous.

‘The consultants said it was a spider bite, probably a false widow as there had been a spate at the time, but they’d never seen one as severe as mine.

‘It nearly took my life, this spider.’

Medics at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford dressed her leg in manuka honey strips and at one point gave her morphine for the intense pain.

She healed to the point where she was discharged but she still has ongoing complications, almost four years on.

Tracey suffers from oedema, which is swelling caused by excess fluid trapped in the body’s tissues.

She spoke after reading Metro.co.uk’s story about Gillian Dennis, a mum-of-two from Leeds who was hospitalised after being bitten by a spider while hanging out her washing.

Tracey believes she was bitten by a false widow on the visit to Bybrook Barn, who have said they could find no evidence of arachnid activity after she made them aware of what had happened.

The group of six species live in the UK and have a similar appearance to the black widow but are not as harmful.

Females have a body length of up to 14mm, with males up to 10mm, and they have a leg span that covers a 50p coin, according to the Wildlife Trust.

The charity says that confirmed cases of bites are ‘extremely rare’ and it is even more unusual for people to feel unwell as a result.

The noble false widow, which has a dark brown front section and legs, is the largest species likely to be found near homes.

Reports of bites are usually made in early autumn but arachnid experts are keen to point out that the insects typically react defensively such as when being squashed or poked.

Dr Geoff Oxford, of the British Arachnological Society, told Express.co.uk that the species are ‘certainly spreading’ in the UK but reassured people that while they are capable of biting humans they are not ‘naturally aggressive’.

In June, Nathan Green thought he had been spiked at the pub before his wife noticed a growing blister on the back of his leg.

The tug company manager, 50, went to A&E at James Paget University Hospital in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, where doctors told him he was going into anaphylactic shock and put him on an antibiotic IV drip.

A medic identified a false widow spider bite, which is still not fully healed.

Nathan said ‘it’s up there with the worst pain I’ve ever felt’ and urged people to be aware and get medical help straight away if they are bitten.

A spokesperson for Bybrook Barn said: ‘We remember the customer in question. At the time we did a thorough search of the area and found no evidence of any false widow spiders.

‘We have also had no incidents prior or since the customer made us aware that she may have been bitten whilst shopping with us.’

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