A woman who went to the doctor with a pain in her head was horrified when they pulled a live spider from her ear.
Victoria Price had just returned home from a quick dip in the sea when she began suffering horrendous discomfort.
The mum from Porthcawl, South Wales, thought she might have suffered an infection or perforated eardrum, but it turned out to be something far more terrifying.
After a visit to accident and emergency, medics discovered a “chunky” spider had crawled into her ear and made itself a home.
South Wales Police IT trainer Victoria had been swimming off Newton Beach when the furry spider is thought to have nestled itself inside her head.
“I got out of the shower [when I got home] and the pain in my ear was just incredible,” said Victoria, a member of Newton Lifeguard Club.
“I assumed I had trapped water or I’d perforated an eardrum or something.
“I was convinced it would go pop and the water would drain out,” she said.
That night the family went out for a meal. Afterwards, before going to bed, Victoria asked her husband Huw to check in her ear for any sign of infection.
His reaction was a shocked: “There’s something alive in there!”
After taking their eight-year-old daughter Bethan to her grandparents, the couple headed straight for Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend.
Victoria said: “We didn’t have to wait long.
“I saw the triage nurse and told her, ‘there’s something alive in there, apparently.’
“She took the cotton wool out, shone in the light and said ‘okay’ and then went off to find someone who would take it out.”
Sarah said: “It was very straightforward. The spider was visible in Victoria’s inner ear and it came out quite easily.
“But it was alive and very wriggly. It was quite big too. It must have been twice as big as it first looked.