A Holiday Gone Awry: A Personal Account of a Sea Urchin Injury

The following story is a first-person column published in *The Guardian*’s Life & Style section on 10 July 2026. It recounts a family vacation on the Greek island of Agistri that turned painful after the writer stepped on a sea urchin. Because the piece is a personal recollection rather than a news report, the article reflects the author’s subjective experience and the opinions expressed therein.

The Guardian

Five days into the trip, the writer returned to shore after a long swim and entered shallow water. Upon wading, they “stood on a sea urchin,” causing “hundreds of sharp needles stabbing into my skin.” Medical advice obtained on the island indicated that “many, many sea urchin spines had become lodged in my sole” and that all needed removal to avoid serious infection. Over the remaining days, the writer lay on the floor of a rented flat while parents “took turns to pierce my foot with tweezers and needles” to extract the fragments. Various home remedies—warm water, olive oil, sea water—proved ineffective. After returning to Devon, the remaining spines “surfaced enough” a week later, allowing the writer to tweeze them out in the bath.

The Guardian

The incident generated intense physical pain and “emotional… fury,” straining family tempers. The writer describes the experience as a “grimace” that resurfaces when recalling the holiday. A brief interaction with another family at the ferry port highlighted the contrast between the writer’s distress and the other family’s enthusiasm for returning to Agistri.

The Guardian

• “Not because of the pain of the initial impact – although hundreds of sharp needles stabbing into my skin was about as comfortable as it sounds – but because of what came next.” — Writer

The Guardian

• “Photograph: Courtesy of Lucy Knight Much of the remaining half of the holiday was then spent with me lying on the floor of our rented flat, my parents taking turns to pierce my foot with tweezers and needles to coax the fragments of sea urchin out, one by one.” — Writer

The Guardian

• “Tempers on both sides were lost, to put it lightly.” — Writer

The Guardian

• “A week later, safely back home in Devon, the remaining spines had surfaced enough, and I was level-headed enough, to tweeze them out by myself in the bath.” — Writer

The Guardian

These excerpts capture the core incident, the family’s response, and the lingering emotional resonance of the holiday.

The Guardian