A woman from Helsby has made headlines all over the world after dislocating her jaw while eating an oversized burger.

Former Helsby High School student Nicola Peate, 25, was enjoying a meal out with work colleagues at the Almost Famous restaurant in Liverpool on August 8 when she suddenly felt excruciating pain in her mouth after taking a bite out of a giant triple-decker burger.

The 5lb ‘Kids in America’ burger, which contains pretzels and candied bacon, had to be polished off by Nicola’s fiancé Neil Docking as she couldn’t bring herself to finish it.

But after initially laughing it off, the pain soon became unbearable and Nicola, who grew up on Alvanley Road but now lives in Ormskirk, was forced to go to hospital the next day.

An X-ray at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital showed her jaw had been dislocated, requiring a doctor to manipulate it back into place using his thumbs.

Thankfully it did the trick and Nicola was discharged, amid warnings to stifle her yawns and not open her mouth too wide for the next fortnight.

For Nicola, who suffers from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which means her hyper-flexible joints are more prone to dislocation than other people's, the experience has made her more conscious about eating oversized food.

Speaking to The Chronicle, she said: “I've never dislocated my jaw before and with my condition, once I've dislocated something once it can be more susceptible to doing it again so  I think I’ll be a lot more conscious now - I'll be using a knife and fork with big burgers!

“I'd eaten another burger from Almost Famous in Manchester so decided to go for a different one this time.”

She added: “To be honest I chose it more for the candied bacon than the size of it – I didn't actually realise it was a triple burger until it arrived!”

In the past week, Nicola’s experience has become a huge talking point all over the world, with news websites in countries including America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand all featuring the story.

But the social media manager, admitted that she’s found the sudden media frenzy ‘incredibly embarrassing’.

“I had no idea it would be this big of a story – it’s all been a bit bonkers!

“But I did get great treatment at the hospital – and having dislocated a lot of joints, I've had a big variety in standard of care.

“In my job I do get asked a lot about how to make things viral – I just had no idea it would be a story about me!”