Woman's shock as pearl discovered at birthday meal

The pearl was found during Paige Hawkins' birthday meal

A woman was "really shocked" after her partner found a pearl whilst eating mussels during her birthday meal.

Paige Hawkins said while her partner was eating a mussel at seafood restaurant The Quayside in Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire, he "found something really hard and... pulled it out of his mouth".

She described the discovery as "like a little gift that he's given me for my birthday".

Ms Hawkins, from Kidderminster, said she hoped to put it into her necklace.

The restaurant at Stourport Marina said that Ms Hawkins found its "first and only natural pearl" in one of the Cornish mussels.

Paige Hawkins said she wanted to get the pearl valued

Asked if she realised this type of occurrence was very rare, Ms Hawkins said: "I've eaten plenty of mussels and such in my time and it's never something that I've ever come across.

"I did actually Google it as well to see how rare it is and I think it was something like one in 10,000."

The Quayside, which opened in 2020, said this "just shows what our native waters can produce".

Restaurant co-owner Scott Applegarth said: "We're selling 25kg of mussels a week," adding: "In the whole history of the business we've never encountered one."