FROGS may be a food delicacy in some parts of the world but for one Southampton mum just seeing the word "frog" would leave her screaming in fear.
Danni Hawkins, pictured above here, has been terrified of frogs and toads ever since she was a little girl, with the humble amphibian ruining countless trips to parks and zoos.
Now though the 23-year-old mother-to-two has had her extreme frog phobia cured after she was forced to sit in a sealed room with the croaking beasts for 24-hours as part of an up-coming TV show.
Danni, from Sholing, was also made to wear frog slippers and at times was surrounded by images of the pond-dwellers as she battled to overcome her terror.
Her transformation in just three days astounded phobia experts and amazed her friends and family, leaving Danni feeling happier than she has ever felt before.
Danni, of Kathleen Road in Sholing, said she felt the fear stemmed from when she was eight and would find the amphibians hopping around her back garden.
She admitted: "They used to come out of the bushes and look at me, so me and my friend would poke them with sticks. Maybe my fear was them paying me back for that."
The decision to tackle her problem came after Danni felt her phobia was getting worse every year, culminating in her not even being able to read her children a bedtime story if it featured a frog in it.
So, with the help of a new BBC Three show called The Panic Room that is being aired next week, Danni turned to doctors at London's Harley Street.
There she met psychologist Lucy Atcheson who forced her to face her phobia head on, first getting her to look at frog pictures on a projection screen, then making her hold plastic frogs and tadpoles, before eventually picking up the real things including a giant Cane Toad.
Ms Atcheson, said: "Her phobia was beginning to control everything she did and where she went with her children and she just didn't want that."
She added that to break the phobia she made Danni face up to her frog phobia until she realised that the fear itself was the scariest part.
"It was so painful for her to stand and look at frogs because she is having to fight a habit that is so entrenched that she is terrified, but if she stands and looks she will start to realise there is nothing to fear," she added The programme is due to be screened at 9pm this Tuesday.
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