Madge Lynch had just left her car outside her St. Johnston home when a 30 ft tree crashed down onto her red Vauxhall Corsa at 10.30pm on Tuesday.

Winds of up to 77 miles an hour had ravaged power and telephone lines in the area and Madge, who miraculously only suffered minor bruising to her arm and shoulder, had just returned from her son's house when she had the lucky escape.

"I feel lucky to be alive,'' she said.

"A second either way and I would have been dead.

"I was coming back from my son's house because there was a black out. I was going to stay there all night but the lights came back on so I decided to go home.

"I drove round the back of the house, opened the car door and went up to the door of my house.

"I went to put the key in the door when I heard a massive noise. It was unreal. The next thing I knew I could feel a branch touching my hand. There then came another massive crash, it sounded like a tornado.

"I got down on my hands and knees and tried to find my way about in the dark."

Madge's son came to her rescue when he heard her shouts for help.

"My son came round in the car and he heard me shouting. He managed to drag me out,'' she said.

"My son told me that the car was wrecked. I was shocked to hear him saying that."

Madge says she is still in shock over how she managed to cheat death by no more than a few inches.

"If I had been in the car or had just got out of the car I would have got the full blast of it,'' she said.

"You can get a new car but you can't get a new you.

"My son said there must have been someone up there looking out for me. I can't believe how lucky I've been."