SHARON Vos knows she is lucky to be alive.

When the healthy 53-year-old was bitten by an insect in her garden she thought nothing of it.

Yet just a couple of days later she was being rushed to hospital with blistering skin, a soaring temperature, failing kidneys and dangerously low blood pressure.

Mrs Vos and her son Ryan, 29, had been working in the garden of her home in Maresfield, near Uckfield, on a Friday in March when she felt a bite on her hand.

She said: “I didn’t know what it was but I’m always getting bitten so took no notice.

“When I felt exhausted and sick and had an upset stomach the next day I put it down to the fact my husband Chris had been suffering a vomiting bug.”

When she went to bed on the Sunday night Mrs Vos saw she had a rash on her hand and up her arm and she was starting to feel more unwell.

The next morning the rash had spread everywhere around her body apart from her face and she had huge swellings on her neck.

Mr Vos, 55, called the doctor who summoned an ambulance within minutes of arriving, realising she had a serious infection.

At this point Mrs Vos’ body started to shut down.

She said: “My blood pressure was really low, I had a high heart rate. I started to bleed because my kidneys had stopped working and I was having trouble breathing.”

Mrs Vos was rushed to Tunbridge Wells Hospital in Kent where she was taken into intensive care.

Doctors quickly diagnosed her with severe sepsis and multiple organ failure.

Mrs Vos said: “I had reached a temperature of 41.9C and hospital staff said they had never seen anyone with such a high one like that before. I was literally cooking.

“My skin was blistering and my veins were collapsing. The poison was also affecting my muscles and tendons and my mouth was erupting into ulcers.

“It is all very blurred to me now although I remember a lot of doctors and nurses coming in and out.

“The hospital staff were really calm and that helped keep me calm. Even then I did not realise how seriously ill I was.

“They were like a swan. Everyone was serene and calm on the top but they were paddling frantically underneath to keep me alive.”

Mrs Vos was eventually stabilised and put into an induced coma on life support while she was given high dose antibiotics to fight the infection.

She stayed in a coma for a week while on a ventilator and having dialysis and it took another four to five days for her to come round fully.

She said: “I gradually became aware that my family were around me but all I thought was that it was nice to see them.

“I was completely oblivious to how ill I was. I had no idea that they had been by my bedside for almost two weeks. I now realise that I nearly died."

At first Mrs Vos could only see in sepia and she had no strength because her muscles had been so badly affected.

Once out of intensive care, she spent a further two weeks on a medical ward.

After almost six weeks in hospital she had only managed to walk a short distance with the aid of a frame, but after intensive home and hospital physiotherapy, she is now walking short distances with crutches.

While ill, she lost 50% of her hair, which has now started to regrow.

At the moment Mrs Vos has peripheral nerve damage in her hands and feet and cannot fully close her hands.

It is not known yet whether the damage is permanent.

It may take up to two years for Mrs Vos to recover fully from the sepsis and she is now telling her story to raise awareness of the devastating condition.

She said: “I just want to raise awareness of just how dangerous this infection can be and how random it is.

“I’ve heard that people have developed sepsis through being scratched by brambles.

“It is so important that people in general are aware and that hospital staff know about it.

“I was so lucky that the team at the hospital picked up on it straight away.

Mrs Vos is now enjoying every moment with her family, which includes her other children Maddie, 23, Amelia, 10, and Lawrence, 31.

She also hopes in the future to develop a career out of photography but at the moment is focusing on her health.

She said: “I feel for my poor family because they have also been through so much. My mum still cries when I try to talk about it.

“I have had a tremendous amount of support from my relatives and friends and I am determined to pull back.

“I never thought such a tiny innocuous bite on my hand would almost kill me.”