A 57-year old Tesco worker was left in coma for nearly a month after he was bitten by a poisonous spider when shifting imported goods.

Alan Harbidge from Cardiff was bitten by what his family believes was a tropical spider when he was bringing in imported goods at a Tesco distribution centre at Magor in South Wales. Initially his fingers started to 'swell like sausages' and was rushed to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff where he fell into a coma after suffering liver and kidney failure as the infection spread through his body.

"He came home from work complaining of groin pains - his job involves lifting so we thought it was a hernia but it was followed by a rash. The rash got worse until it was bright red and then his fingers swelled up until they looked like fat sausages", his sister Lynda Conniff said.