A grandmother has put the 42 gallstones removed from her body by surgeons up for sale on the shopping site eBay.
Anita Crawley, of Lower Barn, Hemel Hempstead, had mislaid the small stones, which required surgery two years ago to relieve her of the pain they were causing, but after coming across them again tucked away in a desk drawer she decided to flog them.
Anita, 66, who works for the Hospice Lottery, said: I put them on eBay as a joke. There are 42 of them – one looks like a Malteser and one looks like a white Malteser. There are 40 others of varying sizes.
“It would make a nice necklace if someone is brave enough to put a needle through them. My son is the manager at H. Samuel jewellers in Hemel Hemsptead – he thinks I’m completely mad.
“I think maybe a medical student might want to see what is inside them.
“I still can’t believe they came out of me because there is quite a lot of them and they are very unusual in size and shape.”
Gallstones are usually made of cholesterol and are formed in the gallbladder. In most cases they do not cause any symptoms but if they become trapped they can trigger sudden and intense abdominal pain.
Even the surgeon who treated Anita said the gallstones were rather unusual. She said: “He laughed and said: ‘We found quite a lot of them.’
Anita said: “It was quite crippling and they cancelled the surgery quite a few times so when I got there it was quite a relief.”
Bidding for the unusual purchase was due to close last night. At the time of going to press one bid of 99p had been made.