A schoolboy surprised himself - and his family - when he sneezed out a 5p coin, which he claims has been stuck up his nose for 10 years. Umair Qamar, now aged 14, says he has a vague memory of shoving the coin up a nostril when he was younger.
Although his mum took him to the doctor’s on several occasions when he complained about having a sore nose, the 5p piece was never found. But the coin finally made an appearance last week on June 19 when the teenager felt something up his nose.
After complaining of a painful nose, Umair, from Croydon, south London, followed his mum’s advice to blow his nose hard and he tried breathing out of alternate nostrils. Eventually the 5p coin shot out of his nose.
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He said: "I thought there was something stuck in there as I could feel something hard in my nose so I went back upstairs and held my left nostril, breathed in and then breathed out of my right one." And, with cotton buds in both ears, Umair managed to breathe out so hard that the coin popped out of his nostril.
Umair added: "I think I got it stuck up there when I was three or four years old - I can't really remember. When I got over the shock of it all, I felt pure relief - but it definitely took me a while to get over the surprise!"
His mum Afsheen Qamar, 43, described the incident as "completely bizarre". The nursery manager said: "It happened so randomly - I wasn't expecting it at all! I called him for lunch but he was holding his nose - so I told him to blow it.
"After 15 minutes he came back down, just stood there and said, 'well, a 5p coin came out'. We all stopped eating. I remember asking him, 'are you serious?'. He's a very laidback and quite serious child, so I'm sure you can imagine my shock".
Afsheen said Umair had complained about breathing problems while playing football over the years. But the mum-of-two claimed: "I have taken him to the doctors a few times but it didn't even cross their minds to check his nose.
"I just cannot believe we never knew - Umair does silly things and doesn't tell us."
Professor Claire Hopkins is an ear, nose and throat consultant at Guy's and St Thomas' hospital in London. She said: “Children have a fascination with inserting things into their nostrils - be that their finger, beads, lego bricks or, on one occasion, a couple of lobster claws.
"5p coins are the perfect size to disappear up the nose and be forgotten; 4-year-olds are easily distracted and may fail to mention the money box trick to their parent."
And she added: "Large foreign bodies can block the nose or cause sinus issues while small foreign bodies, such as a small coin, may remain in the nasal cavity for many years before they present, often with unilateral crusting or discharge."
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