A mother-of-one, who panicked after accidentally binning her mobile phone containing thousands of irreplaceable family photos, has thanked the Calne recycling team for saving it from a three-tonne pile of rubbish.

Leanne Sowerby, 26, of Betjeman Avenue, Royal Wooton Bassett rushed home from a shopping trip after she realised she had placed her phone alongside the recycling but was horrified to find it had been collected on her return.

"I was absolutely heartbroken," she said. "It was something I never dreamed I would get back once I realised I had put it in the recycling. It is an iPhone and I was stupid because I had never backed it up.

"I don't go anywhere without my phone and I thought perhaps I had left it at home and it wasn't until my mum asked if I had put it in the bin that I realised."

After calling Hills Waste, Mrs Sowerby, who had lost all hope of recovering the thousands of images of her seven-month-old son Harry, her husband Rowan's 30th birthday and their wedding, was advised to track her phone's whereabouts using an app by recycling manager Henry Newbery.

She said: "I was absolutely frantic at this point and in floods of tears. I was calling the phone and it was ringing, but after a while it stopped and I thought that was it, it was gone then."

After discovering the phone was somewhere in Hills' Porte Marsh Recycling Management Facility in Calne, Mr Newbery and his team later discovered the intact phone was inside three tonnes of compacted rubbish.

After hearing it ring, the recycling manager answered it - much to Mrs Sowerby's delight.

"I went off an bought a card and some chocolates straight away because I was so thankful," she explained. "I have learnt from my mistake and will back my phone up from now on!"

According to Mr Newbery, Hills are often contacted by people who have accidentally thrown something important away and stressed that "time is of the essence" but is happy this story has a happy ending.

He said: "We were so pleased to be able to return Leanne’s phone to her with all her photos. It was clear it meant a lot to her and being able to help people like that is a great feeling.

"She was very lucky the phone was in one piece, as the rubbish is compacted inside the collection vehicle and it was in amongst about three-and-a-half tonnes of material.

"I am very grateful for the hardworking team here at Porte Marsh. They were only too happy to help and thanks to their careful sorting we managed to get the phone back in one piece."