A HEARTBROKEN mum wept today as she described how a fast-moving flesh-eating bug killed her son just days after he complained of flu.

Doreen Marsden, 47, said she will never forget the hour of her life which followed the phone call telling her 23-year-old Lee Spark was desperately ill.

Just minutes later he was dead and now Mrs Marsden, of Ribchester, is in the process of setting up the Lee Spark Foundation for Severe Streptococcal Infections and Necrotising Fasciitis (NF) in memory of her eldest son.

NF, the disease dubbed galloping gangrene and a flesh-eating bug because it kills human tissue at a rate of inches per hour, is contracted though an established wound from an injury or surgery and eventually causes vital organs to fail.

Mrs Marsden, a receptionist at a Blackburn doctors surgery, said Lee had an abscess but only complained of flu in the days leading up to his death in Sheffield in October last year.

She said: "The sheer speed of this disease is terrifying. People have died within three days of contracting NF and one woman I spoke to thought her two-year-old child had chickenpox and 14 hours later she was dead."

Lee, who grew up with Mrs Marsden in St Helen's before she remarried and moved to East Lancashire eight years ago, spent four years living and working in Tenerife before returning to Britain in November 1998.

Just weeks before his death he secured a job in Sheffield and moved into a flat close to his younger brother Martyn, 21, his partner Emma Tuttle and their young baby Lewis, now one.

Mrs Marsden, a Cruise bereavement counsellor, explained: "I saw Lee about a fortnight before he died and he was fine. "The first thing I knew about him being ill was when Martyn phoned me and said he had flu. I told him to tell Lee to take paracetamol and plenty of fluids.

"The next I heard was on Wednesday October 6 at 9.45am when Emma called. She was crying and I could hear Martyn in the background screaming like a wolf. She just said 'It's worse than we thought'. I said 'What are you talking about? He's got flu'."

Martyn had gone to Lee's flat that morning and only returned home for a couple of minutes to call an ambulance.

By the time he got back to his brother a paramedic crew had arrived and were already working on restarting Lee's heart.

Mrs Marsden went on: "I will never forget that hour of my life. I felt like I was on another planet. I felt numb, like it wasn't happening to me. I kept fainting and was lying on the floor talking on the phone.

"We were so close. He was so lovable, he had an absolutely fantastic personality."

"Not a penny of the charity's money will go on anything other than research. Every penny will go towards helping to save lives."

The foundation's first meeting, which will bring together a number of survivors, is at the Ribchester Arms on Saturday, September 16, at 5pm.

For more information or help contact the foundation on 01254 878701 or by email at cmarsden@zen.co.uk.