FOR some people the sight of a rat would be enough to reduce them to a gibbering wreck -- but not for one brave Rossendale woman who is set to face her worst fears on television next week.

Animal Nightmares, a programme highlighting individual plights to fight phobias is being screened on satellite TV show National Geographic channel.

Mother of two, Lynn Byron, 48, has been terrified of the vermin ever since she was teased about rats as a youngster and suffered from the condition known as musophobia. Thanks to the programme she has now conquered her fear.

She works as an office manager at self-help company Excellence For All, Warwick Street, Haslingden, who cure people of phobias similar to Lynn's every day -- although she never mentioned her fear until an American TV crew stepped in.

Even though she has been plagued by the phobia for more than 30 years she didn't tell anybody at work about the problem until her boss, Peter McNab, was approached by the makers of Animal Nightmares to participate in a documentary, which involved curing somebody of their rat phobia.

Lynn of Greave Close, Constablelee, Rawtenstall, said: "I am really looking forward to seeing it on television. It was filmed quite a while ago so I am sure it will bring a few of the memories back."

She added: "When Peter said I need to find somebody with a fear of rats, I had to then admit that I had a secret fear of them.

"It started when I was about ten, we used to play near the canal and a group of lads all teased us about the rats. It was ever since that day I couldn't stand the sight of them.

"Every time I go out on a walk we have to avoid rivers and canals because of the fear of seeing a rat."

Peter is one of the leading practitioners of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) in the country and was recommended to take part in the documentary by an expert in the field who he met in America in 1991.

He runs training courses in the North West to teach NLP for personal and business development to help build confidence. The same technique is used to cure people of their worst fears.

It was the first time that Peter has actually cured anybody of a rat phobia.

As part of the curing process Peter used a technique called re-imprinting, which sends people into a semi-trance and takes them back to the time when their fear was first triggered.

Lynn was encouraged to look at the incident in a different light and take positive thoughts back to that time.

After the technique was completed Peter took Lynn into a near-by pet shop, where she held baby rats at first and then progressed into holding a full sized foot long rat, which was all filmed for the series.

She was then taken back to the canal behind the Ashworth Arms pub in Rawtenstall where her fear first started.

Peter said: "Lynn was fantastic, even I wouldn't have been able to pick up the rat that she did."

The series starts on October 4 from 8.30pm.