A STUDENT was rescued from a nightmare spider encounter by ordering food from a delivery service.

Demi Sweeney, who has a phobia of spiders, ordered a KFC meal through courier service Deliveroo and deliveryman Josh overcame his own fears to be her knight in shining armour.

The 22-year-old criminology student was alone in her house on Curzon Road, Springbourne, when she noticed the large spider blocking her route to the stairs.

After exhausting the normal avenues of housemates and neighbours, and hopes of a scheduled parcel delivery failing to provide a solution, Demi was handed the idea from a friend of getting Deliveroo to come to her aid.

She messaged the service on Twitter and they advised her to place a note on her delivery.

Her saviour arrived in the form of courier Joe around 20 minutes later.

"I heard the door bell ring and I ran straight down the stairs to the front door with my roll of toilet paper," she said.

"I asked if he had seen my note. He laughed and said he was scared of spiders as well. Luckily he said he would try to do it. "He got to the spider, but it made a break for freedom. He squashed it and flushed it down toilet.

"I'm so grateful that he was able to help me. He was my hero. I thanked him so many times.

"He was glad he could help and he found the whole situation funny really."

Demi's ordeal with the spider, which she says had a body the size of two pence coin, lasted around four hours from first sighting until she tucked into her KFC.

Having completed her second year at Bournemouth University she is set to go home for the summer this week.

She admitted it was not the way she imagined the year would end.

“I have a really bad phobia of spiders. I'm always looking around the room," Demi said.

"Normally there are other people around to help, but because it is near the end of the year at university people are busy revising for exams or they have already gone home.

"This was the worst situation I have found myself in."

Demi said she has already made plans in case she encounters a similar struggle when she returns to her Bournemouth student let in September.

She has reached an agreement with a security guard who lives nearby to be her on-call spider removal service.