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Victim Tony WilliamsonA father who suffered a tiny cut died six days later after a flesh-eating disease spread through his body at the rate of three inches an hour.
Tony Williamson contracted blood poisoning and necrotising fasciitis (NF), an infection which kills flesh under the skin.
There are more than 2,000 NF cases reported each year and three quarters of patients die.
Mr Williamson, 60, a removal man, brushed off the half-inch cut as nothing to worry about but now his widow is campaigning for men to drop their macho attitude to medical problems.
Carole Williamson, a drama teacher, said: "Tony was a wonderful husband but he was stubborn and would dismiss injuries with it's nothing to worry about or I'll be fine.
"Too many women like me have been made widows by this attitude."
Mrs Williamson, 60, intends using an inquest into his death next week to raise awareness about the disease and to urge men to be more careful with their health. She had never heard of NF until her husband's death.
The disease is caused by a number of bacteria and can invade broken skin. The patient rapidly becomes unwell with flu-like symptoms including vomiting.
Without strong antibiotics, given intravenously, or even surgery to cut away infected tissue, patients suffer shock, collapse and low blood pressure.
It ultimately leads to organ failure. In Mr Williamson's case, it led to a fatal heart attack.
He had recently been given the all-clear after treatment for lung cancer and was fit and healthy. The former aircraft engineer was transporting furniture from a client's home in London to France when he scratched his right forearm.
Mrs Williamson said: "It was something that happened quite a lot in his line of business. Tony said there was no cause for alarm and he was the type of man who would never put on antiseptic cream or seek medical attention.
"He made his delivery in Lyons and then travelled to Cannes to pick up a return load of furniture. Two days after suffering the cut he telephoned me from our house in France to say he had been sick.
"He thought it was probably food poisoning and again said there was no cause for alarm. The next day, when he arrived at the house in Lyons, he was still being sick.
"I now know, of course, nausea is an early sign of NF. Two days later he had to lay in the back of the lorry while a colleague took over the driving. When they reached Cannes, Tony got out of the lorry and collapsed. He was taken by ambulance to Grasse Hospital but as they had no intensive care he was transferred to Cannes Hospital.
"At midnight he suffered a heart attack. The toxins had invaded his body and his system had simply closed down."
A post-mortem examination in England confirmed NF and blood poisoning caused his death.
Mrs Williamson, who lives with their son James in Claremont Road, Seaford, said: "I found it hard to accept no attempt was made to check Tony's condition during the journey but, men being men, they don't like showing signs of what they see as weakness.
"He certainly didn't think he was so ill but if he had sought treatment would anyone have known the cause and could he have been saved?
"I want to tell the world this bacteria exists and that it can, without treatment, kill in such a short space of time.
"I hope to impress those at the inquest how you can contract it from the most minor of injuries even a paper cut.
"Perhaps we can all learn from this tragedy."
Mrs Williamson, who taught at Roedean and now works at Brighton and Hove High School and St Mary's Hall in Brighton, is raising money for the Lee Spark NF Foundation which raises awareness.
TV presenter Ben Fogle is currently battling a similar flesh-eating bug which he contracted after being bitten while filming in Peru this summer.
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