A young mum, whose six year old daughter picked up a needle, which could have been used for drugs, outside a shop in Ross-on-Wye, is desperate to stop it happening to anyone else’s child.

Melissa Young told the Ross Gazette that her daughter was just being inquisitive when she picked up a needle and put it in her pocket to show her teacher.

Melissa immediately took her daughter to A&E to have her checked over. She said:?“We waited in that waiting room for hours! Luckily she was ok this time.”

She then had to explain the dangers that exist to her innocent child who thought she had done something wrong.

Melissa told the Gazette that the experience was:?“terrifying but heartbreaking also as my daughter thought she’d done something terrible, when she was just being a child and inquisitive.”

She added:?“I don’t know the personal circumstances which has led these people down a dark path, and I don’t judge them for their life choices, however consideration for others is a must.”

She suggests a safe place could be set up for those who use needles to go where the environment is controlled so that no one else gets harmed.