A woman eating mussels she had collected for her dinner was stunned after she nearly swallowed a rare pearl.

Tamsyn Bond picked up dozens of the shelled molluscs during a trip to the Helford estuary in Cornwall.

She returned home and cooked them but when she began to eat them she had a bit of a shock.

She said: "I took a bite into the first mussel and thought I'd come across a bit of grit or sand and promptly spat it out. I heard a crunch and after having a quick look to see what it was, I saw this perfect round pearl, much to my astonishment."

Tamsyn, a hotel owner in Mousehole, Cornwall, added: "I've heard of people finding pearls in oysters, but not mussels. I'm going to keep it very safe."

Natural pearls form without any human intervention and are very rare – found in just one per cent of mussels.

The pearl, which is smaller than the size of a pea, is perfectly round without any blemishes.

Normally thousands of pearl oysters or pearl mussels have to be gathered and opened in order to find even one wild pearl.

For many centuries that was the only way pearls were obtained until humans developed cultured pearls, bred on farms.

Only a very few mussels contain hidden 'treasure' – and most of these are dark coloured and misshapen.

Tamsyn is now going to incorporate the pink pearl, around half a centimetre across, into a piece of jewellery. She is thinking about having a small replica of a mussel shell in silver made up to hold the pearl.