A Haslemere pensioner who was rescued from her sinking car following a flash flood is trying to find the mystery man she believes saved her life.

Maddy Rothbart, 72, of Fernden Heights, became trapped in her car as it filled with water after she attempted to drive along a flooded section of road – not realising how deep it was – near the railway bridge on Weydown Road.

“As I approached the bridge I could see water on the surface but could not tell how deep it was,” she said.

“I could see a Jaguar car on the other side of the water and assumed he had got through okay.

“I did not know he had had to be towed out – so I drove into the water but soon realised my car was floating and filling up with water. It was all very frightening. I have a fear of water and there I was with the engine not starting and the car rapidly filling up.”

Mrs Rothbart was calm but in a state of shock as she desperately tried to turn the car around.

“I kept trying to start the engine but couldn’t. I tried to open the door to get out but couldn’t. And I could not get out of the windows because the electrics had gone and the window wouldn’t open.

“I never realised the force of water – you see it in dramatic movies but it actually happens in real life!”

As she had nothing in the car to break a window, she dialled 999 for the fire service but before they arrived a young man came to her rescue.

“I could see people on the bridge watching. I hoped somebody would come and help me but nobody came.

“Then after five minutes or more I heard a voice at the window saying ‘are you okay?’”

The man pulled the door while she pushed and he helped her out of the car.

Mrs Rothbart thanked him at the time but would like to reward him further.

She has tried to find him through Facebook and even contacted the ‘Thank You’ slot on Radio 4’s Saturday Live programme, all to no avail.

The man believed to be in his late 20s or early 30s was driving an off-road or Land Rover type vehicle and was on his way to Jewsons with a work mate on the day of the incident, September 6.

“It was sheer good luck that he was there as he literally saved my life. I know if the water had got as far as my head I would have panicked and that’s when people die,” Mrs Rothbart said.