Joan Hunt, 64, of Brixton, spent three weeks in hospital and needed treatment in intensive care after being infected with E. coli O157 in a UK outbreak linked to crab meat – or its preparation.

She has been left with only 35 per cent kidney function after developing the potentially deadly complication HUS.

Hunt recently told her story to the Plymouth Herald to raise awareness of symptoms and thank the hospital team who saved her life.

She is recovering after becoming dangerously ill in August – the month of a reported Plymouth E. coli outbreak believed to be linked to crab meat.

Joan does not know the source of her poisoning as she had not eaten crab. None of her family became sick.

"I felt I was going to die. I wasn’t in control of my body, my body was controlling me. It was frightening.”

As reported in The Herald earlier this month, there is an ongoing investigation into an E. coli outbreak in Plymouth with a possible link to an unapproved crab supplier.

Investigators took action after nine cases emerged in August. There have been no further reports of illness linked to crab since.