A Berriew woman feared she would lose her leg after being bitten by a poisonous snake in her garden.

Charlotte Brown arrived in hospital over 24 hours after she was bitten by the adder whilst cleaning her son's paddling pool on Tuesday afternoon.

"The doctors were quite worried," Charlotte said, as they also feared a blood clot could result in a heart attack.

Snakes bites, especially from adders, are treated as an emergency. However, Charlotte didn't see the snake herself and before being seen by a doctor in person was prescribed antibiotics. She also said that she was told by a nurse that poisonous snakes don't exist in Wales.

"When I got to Shrewsbury hospital they asked why I hadn't arrived sooner," she said. She had all the symptoms and more: swelling, colour change, two puncture wounds. "It got worse and worse. I had blisters everywhere, I had swelling going up to my knee," she said.

As it had been over 24 hours since the bite, doctors were initially cautious about giving her any anti-venom because of the possible side effects. However, a senior consultant was brought in to look at her who knew exactly what to do. "He was brilliant. We need doctors from abroad. He knows from experience how to treat snake bites and we don't see them often here. It's invaluable," Charlotte said.

One of the nurses who treated Charlotte said that in the 20 years he has been working there he had never seen a snake bite.

However, Charlotte doesn't want the rarity of the bites to override their potential serious nature.

"It's definitely rare. But it's classed as an emergency. If it was my son I would not have been happy. It would have been horrendous," she said.

Although Charlotte lives on a housing estate in Berriew, she's next to a farm and fields of long grass. She said that locally, almost everyone she has spoken to has seen an adder at some point - and that there very much are poisonous snakes in Wales.

"Never think a snake bite can't hurt you and that you don't need to go to hospital," she said, as she remains too terrified to go into her own garden.