I half signed up to linkedin * years ago, now that I actually want to use it, I realise...

I half signed up to linkedin * years ago, now that I actually want to use it, I realise I haven't activated my account through the email account I used for the linkedin account. So now I cannot sign into my linkedin account because the email is not associated with an account, but when I try to create a new account with the same email it says that that email address is already in use. I have created another email address to then try and create another linkedin account, but it wont let me use the same mobile phone number for the new account because it is associated with the previous account. I now think it is not a good idea to try and recreate an account and start again, I need to be able to access my old account instead.