Tracy Marjoram (43) has loved gardening since she can remember, but never imagined it could be a danger to her health.
One morning in 2005 she happened to touch her face while she was weeding and within 24-hours Tracy was on a life support machine in hospital.
Her face had been ravaged by a flesh-eating bug she'd caught from the soil. Tracy had contracted a flesh-eating bug called necrotising fasciitis, which is a bacterial infection that can destroy skin and the soft tissues beneath it, including fat and the tissue covering the muscles.
Luckily for Tracy, specialist plastic surgeon Bijan Beigi operated on her face with great success.
Bijan: "If Tracy had come to hospital any later it could have been a different story. Once the disease has spread to the neck and chest, there is a 90 per cent chance of dying, but luckily for Tracy we caught it in time.”
Tracy still loves gardening: "It hasn't put me off of gardening one bit. I'm still out there all the time, I just make sure I wash my hands properly now!"
