<Mum Tina Tann has told how she had to drop out of having a minor operation after she ate a tub of cockles from Leigh and was left ill and weak.

Mrs Tann, 35, of Eastwood, was visiting the Old Town with her husband John and two-year-old daughter Nicole.

The family stopped to buy some seafood from a stall in the around teatime. Mr Tann had a couple of the shellfish and Nicole refused to eat any.

Mrs Tann, though, doused her tub of cockles with vinegar and pepper and ate her portion.

She said: "I asked the man behind the stall what was local because I like to fly the flag, and he pointed out some little brown shrimps, some whelks and winkles and the cockles.

"They tasted perfectly all right.

"I tried to get Nicole to try them but she just screwed up her nose at them. The cockles were the only thing I ate that evening. I'm really fussy with food."

All that night, Mrs Tann was left tossing and turning with an upset stomach and the next morning she rushed straight to the bathroom with diarrhoea.

The illness meant she had to miss a minor operation at Southend Hospital to remove a fluid-filled lump in her wrist.

She added: "It went on for about six to seven days. Every time I ate, even something small, I got stomach gripes again and it really pinched."

The 11-strong Leigh cockle fleet has been grounded since July 28 after a toxin was discovered in the tiny shellfish on July 21 which leads to diarrhetic shellfish poisoning.

Health experts have said cockles on sale will be from safe sources not contaminated with the toxin which has been caused by a rapid growth of algae in the river.

Sea change - Tina and two-year-old daughter Nicole

Picture: LUAN MARSHALL

By Charlie Mellor

Reporter's e-mail: charlie.mellor@notes.newsquest.co.uk

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.