A student was left with horrific second-degree burns after stepping on scorching sand where a disposable barbecue had been used.
Ted Barton, 22, was enjoying a day at the beach celebrating the end of exams with pals at Tynemouth Longsands Beach in Tyne and Wear.
The third-year students cooked burgers and sausages on a disposable grill and left the foil container to cool off for an hour by kicking the sand around to help.
Ted then popped it in the bin and as he walked back to collect his things he stepped on the patch of sand where it had been.
He limped in agony 150 yards to the sea as lifeguards rushed to put his foot in a plastic 'sandwich bag' before getting a taxi to the hospital.
Nurses burst about 10 blisters on his foot and cut or tore away the dead skin during his week-long stay.
Two weeks later and the cybersecurity student at Northumbria University still can't walk, and has to take three weeks off his bartender job.
Ted, from Newcastle, said: “I just wasn’t thinking about the hot sand. I was chatting with my friends and then it felt like something stung me and I gave out such a yell, and I ran, well half-hopped, to the sea.
“I knew straight away what I had done. I looked down and saw that the sand where the barbecue had been was a pinkish colour. That may have been the heat or blood from my foot.
“It really hurt, and I was gutted that I didn’t think about the sand being hot. It’s logical really - barbecues are over 200 degrees.
"Blisters started forming instantly all over the sole of my foot and in between my toes; wherever there is soft skin. It was agony, and I’m not one to mind pain usually.”
Ted's friends carried the six-foot tall lad to help when the sea water didn't help before lifeguards cleaned sand and blood off his injuries with saline wipes.
His foot was in a bucket of cold water for 30 minutes before they popped it in the special plastic bag, which they filled with water and sealed shut over his whole foot.
Ted said his foot kept getting worse, which forced the medical staff to keep pooping blisters as they formed and now it looks like a "zombie's foot".
He said: "I kept on kicking them because I’m really ticklish and also because it hurt so much - I felt bad about that.
"It looks like a zombie's foot because it’s red and pink and then there’s a black bit where there’s old blood and it’s scabbing."
Ted said the lifeguards told him these kinds of accidents are common, but there were no warning signs around that he saw.
He said: "I felt better about not thinking of it when the lifeguards and the burns unit told me these accidents occur quite a lot.
“But there aren’t any warnings about the barbecues and hot surfaces. The disposable ones don’t have feet to raise them off the ground.
“I think there ought to be a warning about where they are put. I feel lucky that no one else came near it.
“If it didn’t happen to me it would’ve happened to someone else. Everybody was moving about getting ready to go.
“I’ll have scars but I feel quite proud of all my other scars so far. The nurses in the burns unit and the lifeguards were all great."
