A WINSFORD mum is urging people to be on the look-out for tell-tale signs of carbon monoxide this winter after her son needed hospital treatment.

Teresa Kelly-Bayliss thought her son had picked up a bout of flu from school after he complained of feeling dizzy and sick.

Unbeknown to them, 12-year-old Jack was being poisoned by the family’s boiler, which was releasing carbon monoxide into their Tarvin Way home for close to three weeks.

“I phoned school to tell them Jack was ill and they said there had been a bug going around and so naturally I thought it was that,” explained mother-of-two Teresa, who has lived at the property for 12 years.

“We were still putting the heating on as we normally would as we didn’t think anything of it.

“But then the fish died, the cat was poorly and I felt unwell and I thought, ‘there’s something more to this’.”

The warning comes after two people collapsed and four other people were taken to hospital from a property on St Anns Road in Middlewich on Friday, November 15.

After calling a gas engineer, Teresa was told that the boiler was faulty and immediately took Jack to the doctors.

The Winsford E-Act Academy student was sent to Leighton Hospital on November 6, where his oxygen levels were discovered to be half of what they should have been. It was quite a frightening experience,” explained Teresa.

“Jack is still scared to go to sleep at night because he thinks he is not going to wake up.

“Carbon monoxide is odourless, colourless and tasteless. You can’t see it and so you don’t know it is there.”

Dubbed the silent killer, carbon monoxide kills around 15 people each year.

Teresa has since bought a carbon monoxide detector and believes more should be done to prevent fatalities.

She said: “At this time of year, with everyone putting their heating on, they are not going to realise what’s happening.

“They will just think it is flu like we did.

“Every house by law should have one. In Scotland it’s the law, why isn’t it here? A carbon monoxide detector costs just £12.50 – what’s that for a life?”

If it wasn’t for Teresa calling the gas engineer when she did, or for the fact that she opens the windows each morning, she and Jack may not be here to tell the tale.

“I pray to God that I called the gas engineer out,” she said. “It was frightening but it was also educational – I know what to look out for now.

“Our pilot light kept going out, which is one of the signs.

“Yellow stains on the hobs and soot on and around the boiler are also signs and regular checks need to be made.”

The Health and Safety Executive is currently making enquiries about the incident to determine whether or not an investigation is needed.

Teresa added: “The cat is ok now. Jack hasn’t got his fish but we are here and that’s the most important thing."