Lyme disease - the danger that can lie in wait on an innocent country walk
Our weather has been warm and wet, the perfect climate for ticks - those blood-feeding parasites - to multiply.
Although vets are aware of the dangers of tick bites to animals, humans are also at risk from Lyme disease - a vicious infection that attacks the immune system and can cause paralysis, encephalitis and meningitis.
It is caused by the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, found in the digestive systems of animals such as mice, pheasants and deer. When a tick bites an animal carrying this bacteria, they can become infected with it. The tick - part of the spider family - can transfer the bacteria to a human by biting and attaching itself to a person's skin for days.
Long ordeal: Jonathan Oakton, with his dog Ben, suffered for 14 years before discovering he had Lyme disease
Lyme disease is transmitted only if the tick remains attached for more than 36 hours. Although you may think it easy to tell if a tick was on your body, they are only a few millimetres in size and do not hurt, so are easy to miss.
Veterinary charity PDSA has reported a 150 per cent leap in animals suffering from the bacterial infection.
'As cases among pets have increased, more people are at risk of catching this dreadful condition,' says senior vet Elaine Pendlebury.
'There has also been an increase in the deer population, and ticks love the warmer, wetter weather.'
While the most recent Health Protection Agency report estimates that there are fewer than 2,000 cases of Lyme disease a year in the UK, it is on the rise.
The first symptom is a red circular skin rash, which subsides after a week or two. A high temperature, muscle pain and joint swelling are then symptoms.
The disease is often misdiagnosed, as the symptoms are similar to a range of common illnesses, including arthritis.
Lyme disease is easy to treat if it is caught in the first few weeks, according to Terence Daymond, a rheumatologist at the Brakespear Hospital in Hertfordshire.
'If it is detected in the early stages, the patient will need antibiotic treatment for a couple of months, and that will cure it.
But if it is not caught, fatigue, encephalitis, meningitis, muscle pain and loss of memory can arise. In rare cases it can kill, and I've seen two instances where it has attacked the spinal cord and paralysed the person from the waist down.'
Jonathan Oakton, 51, suffered for 14 years before he was finally diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2006.
The father of two, from Redditch, Worcestershire, believes he was bitten during a paintballing game shortly after he married his wife Anne.
'About a week later, I began to feel very tired. It felt like flu. Then I suffered night sweats, while shivering in the day. I went to my GP but blood tests revealed nothing amiss and my temperature was normal.'
While his symptoms abated, they returned a month later - a cycle that would be repeated for a year.
'Then I began to have severe headaches that would last for five days and the area surrounding my right eye turned red and I'd have trouble seeing. Then, a month or so later, the same thing would happen.'
His GP blamed it on a common bacterial eye infection - conjunctivitis. Other later misdiagnoses included stress, migraines and depression.
Inconspicuous danger: A Lyme disease tick
The disease causes inflammation throughout the body and, as time went on, he suffered from swollen testicles, an eye growth and numbness in his face and in the back of his hands - all key pointers to Lyme disease.
'My GP referred me to different specialists, an eye hospital and an ear, nose and throat hospital but to no avail. By 2005, he'd run out of ideas and didn't know what to do.'
Jonathan's health deteriorated to such an extent that one morning he woke to find the right-hand side of his body paralysed.
'I was extremely ill,' he says. 'I walked with a stick and could drive for only 20 minutes because my joints hurt so much and my limbs felt so heavy. And my headaches were blinding in their intensity.'
Anne, 45, and their daughters Hannah, now 15, and Charlotte, 14, despaired of their 'grumpy daddy'. 'I was so irritable it affected every part of my life. I lost my job as a sales manager, my girls avoided me and it put an immense strain on my marriage. For my wife, it was like having a grandad for a husband. I was beginning to despair.'
Jonathan started to research his symptoms on the internet. 'I typed in "red eye" as that was one of the most constant problems I'd had,' he says, 'and two options came up. One, Chagas disease, I could discount as I had not been to Central or South America but the other, Lyme disease, seemed a possibility.
'When I looked up the symptoms, I was stunned. There were dozens and I'd had most of them.'
But he faced one more battle. After being referred to a tropical disease clinic in Birmingham, and undergoing a blood test for Lyme disease, the result came back negative.
'I've since been told that false negatives are a problem with this test,' says Jonathan, 'but it was frustrating. However, I then discovered the Lyme Disease Action Group and a Welsh GP who specialises in the disease and he made a clinical diagnosis.'
He prescribed strong antibiotics and immediately Jonathan improved. 'Within four days, my legs were less painful and my eyes improved. The headaches stopped and I haven't had red eye since.
'But I'm still shocked that I had to diagnose myself.
'It is important that GPs are aware of Lyme disease and its terrible symptoms.'