ONE of the most famous rescue photographs taken at the time showed a young woman being guided across the flood water on a plank from a bedroom window.

But Audrey Lowther, now Audrey Randall, who runs the hairdressing salon in Oxford Street, says she has spent the intervening years telling people she was never a flood victim.

"I lived in Essex Street at the time and the water did not come anywhere near my home, or the business which had opened the year before.

"What happened was I got a message that friends in Island Wall had run out of cigarettes and could I get them some. When I got to the house the ground floor was under water and a plank led from the road, which was dry, to a bedroom window.

"I walked across unaided, handed them over and made sure they were all right before turning round.

"As I did so this man appeared and helped me across as a passing photographer snapped off a picture.

"Everybody is supposed to have 15 minutes of fame in their lives, so I suppose this was mine. It has been bugging me ever since."