By Ed Chatterton via SWNS
A mom who found a rare pearl inside a bowl of mussels at her birthday dinner has had it made into a “beautiful” piece of jewellery – completely free of charge.
Paige Hawkins, 29, was given the perfect present after her partner discovered the pearl inside the dish they had ordered to share at a seafood restaurant.
She had been dining at The Quayside, in Stourport, Worcs., with a large group of family and friends to celebrate her birthday in September.
The mom-of-two said her fiancé Jimmy Lee, 30, bit into one of the mussels and found “something hard” inside.
He pulled it out of his mouth ready to complain to waiters only to discover it was actually a rare natural pearl.
Jimmy gifted the pearl to Paige who said at the time she planned to get it turned into a piece of jewellery to cherish forever.
Jeweller Kevin Bassam heard Paige’s story on the radio while driving to work before he tracked her down and offered to make the pearl into a necklace for free.
Last week, Paige picked up the stunning silver pendant, which is worth around £500, and says she “hasn’t taken it off since.”
Paige, of Kidderminster, Worcs., who works as a chef, said: “Kevin just got in touch out of the blue really – he had been driving to work and heard my story on the radio.
“He tracked me down via the restaurant and said he wanted to design me a piece for free, I couldn’t believe it. I was blown away by the offer.
“I just said I wanted something elegant. When people have found pearls in oysters they might get an oyster shell, but I didn’t want anything like that, just a simple design.
“And then he drew up this incredible figure of eight design, which was perfect – it was just what I wanted.
“A couple of weeks later it was ready and it was better than I could have imagined. It’s so beautiful, I just love it and I haven’t taken it off since.
“I kept offering to pay but he insisted. He just said he wanted to be part of the story.
“We even went back to the restaurant and they wanted to pay for our food too so I’ve felt like a bit of a local celebrity these last couple of months.
“I was so appreciative of the kind gestures. This is a story I will always remember of how I became the girl with the pearl necklace – I will treasure it forever.”
Bassam, of K Bassam Jewellers, said the necklace would be “irreplaceable” due to the rarity of the pearl but estimated it would cost £500 to insure.
He said: “I thought to myself, ‘this is such a great story’ and I just wanted to be involved. She’s a local person and we just wanted to help.
“When I got to the branch my manageress said she’d already been in and I thought we’d missed our chance.
“But after a bit of a goose chase we managed to track her down through the restaurant and she came in for a design appointment.
“A couple of weeks later it was ready and she seemed really pleased with it so we are really glad to have helped.
“The back story to how it was found is just really special. Even though it’s a tiny pearl it’s made a beautiful piece of jewellery.”
Bassam said natural pearls, which are formed over many years when a piece of organic matter gets into a shellfish’s shell, were very rare.
He added: “Authentic natural pears are really rare. You’d have to go back to Victorian times to find them in pieces of jewellery.
“These days they are cultured pearls or synthetic pearls so what Paige has there is really irreplaceable.”
Speaking about her discovery previously, Paige said: “We just couldn’t believe it, it just made for a perfect evening.
“It shocked us all. I didn’t know it could come from mussels. It was like a little birthday gift from Jimmy.
“We researched it and it’s really really rare to come from a mussel. I did actually Google it and I think it was something like one in 10,000.
“I’ve eaten plenty of mussels and such in my time and it’s never something that I’ve ever come across.”
