IT all started the night the freezing Beast from the East struck and was to see Marguerite Henderson's life turned completely upside down.

Her feeling unwell became a fierce attack of Sepsis and saw her hanging on to life by a very slim thread.

She lost two legs and an arm, but she survived and is now adjusting to her new life.

The Crosshill woman has put together her experiences in a book called 'My Story: Sepsis Raw & Real', which will be launched this Friday.

In the book Marguerite stresses how important the support of her family was to her, at what were some horrific times, but also that had it not been for the fantastic backing she got from the Benarty community, she might not have been able to tackle facing life without her two legs and an arm.

The book also tells of how she had another Sepsis attack last year, which mercifully this time was caught very early and by that it was successfully removed from her system.

Marguerite said this week: "That is one of the points that I am hoping to get over in the book to try and help people avoid what happened to me.

"The first time it occurred, in February 2018, was after a paper cut on my right index finger which I really did not think was a problem.

"I took the usual precautions, using antiseptic cream, and thought nothing of it. But all of a sudden I started to feel not so well, but still thought it was just a bug.

"However, I felt worse and worse and eventually I was persuaded by my daughter and her husband to go to the Victoria Hospital and immediately I got there staff knew things were very wrong".

It was when the skin on her legs started to turn black and peel off she realised how serious things were: "Staff told me that if I had not come to the hospital that night, which strangely enough was when the snow started with the arrival of the Beast from the East, I would have been dead.

"It is so important to get the poison that the Sepsis causes treated ASAP, as it attacks your limbs and organs.

"I was in hospital for months and lost my right and left legs and left arm, but if the doctors had not removed them I would have died."

Marguerite, Benarty Avenue, talks in the book of her dark days as the reality struck of what had actually happened as she came to terms with still being alive.

"I suddenly realised that my life of being a Family Support Worker in the Education Department, was over and thought how am going to be able to get around without my legs and being without one hand and the other being without a finger, it all seemed to be a hopeless situation," she added.

"But with the family keeping me going I found out that I was getting a lot of encouraging messages from friends and people in the community.

"Then when I found out what they were doing fundraising for me I was simply blown away. I realised there was an awful lot to live for and over the past 18 months I have been getting used to my new prosthetic limbs and learning how to adapt.

"There is still a long way to go but things are strongly heading in the right direction".

But she stressed: "Without the doctors and nurses at the Victoria Hospital, my family and the community, I would not be here."

The book is priced at £12.99 and will be on sale at Benarty Fruits,in Lochore; Mirror Mirror, Crosshill; the Benarty Community Shop, in Ballingry; and Lochgelly Co-op, and is being distributed by Amazon and Waterstones.