[bbfan1991]

A mother-of-one has revealed that she is scared of toilets after developing a strange phobia in her childhood.

Ney Decino, 20, is so terrified of going alone for fear she will be swallowed up, and makes family members pull the handle for her.

She explained that her phobia developed when she was 4 years old after watching the 1990 film Look Who's Talking Too, starring John Travolta and Kirstie Alley.

The film features a scene about potty training where a blue, furry character with sharp teeth called 'The Toilet Man' shouts when it wants a child's urine.

The carer from Church Village, Mid Glamorgan recalled: "When I was about 11, I wet myself on my way home because I wouldn't use the loo at school."

Decino's phobia means she has to work close to home, so she can use her own toilet when she needs to go - the only one she feels safe using.

She said: "Once I've flushed, the sound of it and the look of the water going down, it freaks me out.

"I have to get out of there once it's done and I can't go back in for ages. I use the kitchen to wash my hands because I can't stand being in the room when the cistern fills back up.

"I've literally sprinted out the loo hundreds of times. If I'm in the house by myself I completely freak out."

Her social life suffers as she can't use a public toilet or a toilet with an old-fashioned pull chain, and will only use her friends' toilets if she's desperate and someone goes with her.

Decino admitted that the phobia is "silly" but said that it has gotten worse since giving birth to daughter Kaydee, now nine months, because she has to make more visits to the toilet.

She stated that at first, only her close family and friends knew about her phobia because she was too embarrassed to tell anyone about it.

Decino has now set up a Facebook group called 'Scared of the Toilet Flush' which presently has 137 members.