Gardener Louise Fawcett who contracted a flesh eating bug says she is 'lucky to be alive'

A woman who caught a flesh-eating bug while pottering in her garden has said she feels "lucky to be alive". Louise Fawcett thinks she caught the gruesome bug while working on her flower beds in slip-on sandals and suffering a small cut on her right foot from rubble.

Her foot swelled up and after days of agony and tests doctors diagnosed her with necrotising fasciitis - and faced having the infection cut out of her flesh. During seven operations, including a skin graft from her from her thigh, surgeons fought to remove the infected tissue - and Louise has no memory of three days in intensive care.

Now, after weeks in hospital, she has finally been allowed home and is learning to walk again. She suspects she caught the bug from soil in her garden which got into her blood stream through a tiny cut she got on her foot.

The vision rehabilitation officer from Chesterfield, Yorkshire, said: "I must have got a tiny cut. I think I caught it from the soil. Mark, my husband, has been busy with our garden. It's full of rubble.

"I'm unlucky to get it but lucky to be alive. I can't believe it happened somewhere so suburban as Chesterfield."

Louise didn't notice anything was wrong with her foot until the following day, on April 21. "It was swollen quite a bit," she said. "I started to feel pretty unwell. I couldn't wear shoes for dinner for Mark's birthday. I couldn't put any weight on it."

She continued to feel unwell over the weekend and went to see her GP but was told it was likely cellulitis - a potentially serious infection - and was prescribed antibiotics. She was told to keep her foot elevated and to come back if her symptoms continued.

Louise said: "The next morning I noticed the ankle looked like it had a port wine birthmark. It was very purple. I thought it was sepsis."

Train driver husband Mark, 59, then took Louise to Chesterfield Royal Hospital where she had some blood tests. While waiting for the results a nurse spotted her and realised her symptoms looked like a rare flesh-eating bug she had been studying just the week before.

Louise said: "They took me into a little room. The redness was creeping. It was changing before their eyes. They thought I might lose my life or my leg."

Louise was taken for emergency surgery to open her foot up and cut away at the flesh eating bug. She was then taken to intensive care for three days - but has no memory of the ordeal.

She had a six operations to cut away at the bug before they were able to stabilise Louise. A further three weeks in hospital followed, including a skin graft - where they took skin from her thigh - at Northern General, Sheffield, in May.

Louise was finally discharged on May 16, and has been told her skin graft was successful and has now started physio. She has a pair of crutches to aid her walking.

"They told me it healed. I was crying with joy," she went on. "I'm here. I'm glad to be alive."

Louise has a brace to support her ankle when she sits so it stays at 90 degrees. She said: "I have to bathe my foot. I can't look at it. It doesn't feel like my foot. It feels like a mannequins foot."

Louise had to postpone the launch of her business, Sight Loss Solutions, because of her ordeal - but finally opened her practice on June 16. She hopes to hold individual and group sessions and also support the carers of people who have experienced sight loss.