A man spent four days in hospital after a suspected spider bite led to a painful infection in his leg.

Glenn Priestley, from Blackpool, was renovating his mother's house in the Marton area when he picked up a blanket and felt what seemed to be a sharp insect bite on his left leg.

The 73-year-old was at a loss as to what had bitten him but shortly afterwards he saw a medium-sized brown spider climbing up a wall.

Priestley said he then spent four days in hospital, with the skin flaking off his red and swollen leg.

He said he suspected the bite may have been caused by a noble false widow spider, a distant relative of the Black Widow, which has been described as Britain's most venomous spider.

He said: "I didn't think much of it at the time but a day or so later I experienced a rapidly increasing pain in my leg and discovered it was swollen and highly inflamed and hot to the touch.

"I went to the doctors the next day and they saw how bad it looked and rushed through blood tests.

"A day later I was at Blackpool Victoria's medical assessment unit and ended up staying in hospital for four days."

"My leg has to be bandaged and I need to walk with a Zimmer frame because the foot's too painful to walk on", he said, adding it had been a "pretty alarming and unpleasant experience".

"The pain has been really intense.

"I'd advise anyone else who has a suspected spider bite and starts to feel serious pain to get it checked out right away," he added.