A mum-of-three has been left "sick" with worry after her three-year-old son found a used needle in the street - and put it in his MOUTH.

Jayne Mace, 44, was walking her young son Morgan Goldsmith to pre-school on Tuesday when she heard him say, 'Look, this is what they use to make you feel better'.

To her horror, she realised her son was holding a needle - which the youngster then admitted he had put in his mouth.

Horrified dad Stuart Goldsmith, 41, rushed Morgan to A&E - where doctors examined the needle and found that there was dried blood on the end of it.

Morgan had blood tests and a tetanus jab - but his anxious parents will have to wait three months before being sure their son is in the clear.

Childminder Jayne, from Lyme Regis, Dorset, has set up a petition to have 'sharps boxes' installed in the seaside town, for the proper disposal of clinical 'sharps' waste.

Jayne, who is also mum to a twin son and daughter, aged 11, said: "It's every parent's worse nightmare.

"I'm feeling pretty sick about the whole thing. It's three months of stress and worry. He'll have to have another blood test mid-December - just before Christmas.

"I just feel totally useless. This petition is something I have to do. If I don't do anything and then someone else has this happen to them, I'd feel so guilty.

"Even if they just install one sharps box, it might stop one or two other people having to go through this."

Jayne explained that she was walking Morgan, and other children she was childminding for, to pre-school on Tuesday morning when the stomach-dropping incident happened.

She said: "We were walking down this pathway that runs between two roads on the way to the pre-school.

"I was walking just slightly in front of Morgan - he really loves snails, so he was searching the ground for snails along the path.

"Then I heard him say, "Look mummy, this is what they use to make you feel better", and I turned round and he was holding a needle and a needle cap in his hand.

"There was no syringe or anything, just a needle that had a cap on," she added.

"I asked him if he pricked himself with it, and he said no but that he had put it in his mouth.

"It looked clean to me, but I phoned the doctors and they told me to get him to A&E.

"My partner rushed him there, and they studied the needle under a microscope and found it had dried blood on the end," Jayne said.

She described the event as "traumatic" - especially for Morgan, who had to be held down while they were administering the tetanus jab, she said.

The family now have to wait two weeks to get the results of Morgan's blood tests.

And then the youngster will need another blood test in December, as Jayne and Stuart have been told that some diseases take longer to show in the blood.

Jayne said: "It's three months of stress and worry for our family - all because someone was lazy or careless with their needle.

"It's horrendous. My older two children are at the age where they understand what's going on, and they keep asking if he's going to be okay, and what could happen.

"I was talking to my sister about it, and she was the one who told me about these sharps boxes.

"I just feel I have to do something to try and stop this happening to someone else."

Jayne set up the petition the same day that Morgan found the needle - and within the first 24 hours, it received over 100 signatures.

To sign the petition, visit: https://www.change.org/search and search for 'Jayne Mace'.