A man who suffered a blocked nose for over 40 years was astounded to discover the cause was part of a toy dart he played with as a child. 

Steve Easton, 51, had battled with blocked nasal passages and headaches all his life - but put his symptoms down to hay fever.

It was only a few weeks ago that he realised the real cause - after sneezing out the tip of a toy dart.

Mr Easton said the mildly decomposed sucker had been lodged in his nasal cavity since the 1970s.

And when he told his mother Pat, now 77, he was amazed to be told his parents had taken him to hospital after they thought he inhaled the dart - aged seven.

Mr Easton, of Camberley, Surrey, said: 'I started a sneezing fit and it came out my left nostril.

'I thought, 'What's this? Where the hell has this come from?' and pulled out this rubber sucker. I was completely blown away.

'When I spoke to my mum, she said, "Oh yes, we took you to hospital when you were seven because we thought you had inhaled one".'

Mrs Easton, and her husband Quentin, also 77, from Buckinghamshire, recalled finding their son playing with his dart gun - and noticing one of the rubber tips was missing.

She said: 'He said he'd swallowed it and there was just one of these darts without a tip.

'I took him to the hospital and they spent a lot of time looking for it, but in the end they said perhaps it was a mistake.

'I knew it wasn't and it's always worried me - and now it's suddenly shot out. We are all shocked.' 

He had no idea it was there until in late March, when while sitting at home, he blew his nose - and the dart tip - the same size as a 1p coin, fired from his nose.

Mr Easton said: 'I mentioned it to my doctor and he was amazed like everybody else. But he said there had been no harm done - it's just one of those things.

'It had been there in my nasal cavity for 44 years. I was completely unaware that it was in my nose for that long. I feel no different now.

'I wonder if there's anything else up there.' 

Mr Easton has suffered from hay fever and sniffles all his life, but, as far as he is aware, the dart has caused him no other health issues.