People are being urged to stay away from a dangerous plant after a boy was rushed to A&E with burns.
Jaxon Hallwood, six, was on Leasowe Bay beach on Saturday, May 27 with his grandparents, Debra and Ken Patten, when he yelped out in pain. The schoolboy was playing in the sand dunes when a small white blister initially appeared on his foot, leaving him unable to walk properly.
He was taken to Arrowe Park Hospital in A&E where doctors were "baffled" by what the burn-like blisters could be. After doing some research, nan Debra believes the blisters, which continued to grow in size, were caused by giant hogweed.
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The ECHO previously reported giant hogweed, which is dubbed as "Britain's most dangerous plant", had been found growing behind Leasowe Bay golf course in 2019. The family now wants to warn others with children who may be visiting the area in the warm weather.
Debra , 62, told the ECHO: "Me and my husband took him to the beach, we'd had a fantastic day. We were going to pack up to go home and [Jaxon] was running up and down the sand dunes with other children.
"We were watching him. He went to the back of the sand dune and back to the front. Whether he's put his foot in those weeds as he's ran around..."
"He was running, skipping, and the next thing he came running to us screaming. We thought he'd broken his toe or trodden on a shell."
Debra said Liverpool FC fan Jaxon, who plays football for Marine Academy, is "not one to cry". She said: "He's a footballer, an attacker, so he's used to be taken out when he's playing football he just gets back up.
"He couldn't catch his breath he was sobbing that hard."
Heracleum mantegazzianum, known as Giant hogweed, can be found on riverbanks, waste ground and by canals and roadsides. It's part of the Apiaceae family and is similar to parsley, carrot, parsnip, cumin and coriander.
Giant hogweed looks like an enormous cow parsley plant and when it's fully grown, it can reach towering heights of between 1.5m to 5m and have a spread of between one and two meters. It forms a rosette of lobed leaves in the first year before sending up a flower spike in the second year and then setting seed.
The sap of giant hogweed can cause burns. as it contains furocoumarin, which makes skin extremely sensitive to sunlight. If the sap gets onto your skin and is then exposed to the sun, your skin can blister badly.
Blistering can then recur over months and even years. This is known as phytotoxicity.
According to Woodland Trust, the best way to avoid injury is to wash the area thoroughly and immediately and do not expose the area to sunlight for a few days. If blisters start to appear you should seek medical attention.
Debra said: "Children play in those sand dunes - it's a play area. It's so popular.
"Jaxon said when he came home 'I never want to go to the beach again. He's only six."
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