FLORENCE Rowe isn't usually lost for words, but she was stunned into silence after learning she would be taking the Olympic torch to Downing Street.

The effervescent Hughenden grandmother only found out the day before she was due to take part in the torch relay that she would be taking the Olympic flame to the home of the Prime Minister.

Athletes competing at London 2012 were among the judging panel that selected her for torchbearing duties - but it was the PM himself who said he wanted to meet the 81-year-old in person.

She said: "He chose me because he thought I was a people person. I think I am - I take people as they are.

"I didn't know until the afternoon before. I had a phone call to say you are going to see David Cameron. I just thought, 'Oh my God'.

"I didn't have my tracksuit sent to me. I couldn't put it on until I got to Downing Street.

"He asked me about the 1948 Olympics and he even gave me a kiss."

Mrs Rowe was left stunned again the following day at the media coverage of her meeting with the Prime Minister, as she appeared on the front page of the Daily Mail.

Her phone was constantly ringing as she took call after call from members of her family - most of whom were also at Downing Street on the big day.

She said: "They went to his garden party and I went up the stairs and met the other torch bearer, who won a medal for bravery in Afghanistan."

The mum-of-five has been in demand ever since as people queue up to try and see the torch.

She said: "Everybody wants me to go round and show the torch. When the schools start back in September, I will be busy going round the grandchildrens' schools."

The self proclaimed 'recycled teenager' says the torch will eventually go to one of her nine grandchildren, Lauren, who nominated her as a torchbearer in the first place.

She said: "It's going to go to Lauren. She put me through - if it wasn't for her I wouldn't have been running with it."

Mrs Rowe was at the Games the last time London hosted the Olympics just after the Second World War, and although she wasn't able to get any tickets this time she preferred the 2012 event.

She sat glued to her TV to watch every possible event, with Mo Farah's double in the 5,000m and 10,000m and Usain Bolt's hat-trick of gold medals her favourite moments.

She said: "The whole country has come together and it's been so happy. We don't want to go down in the dumps again.

"Everything has been so different to the 1948 Olympics. All the countries were getting over the war. Nobody wanted that Olympics but we took it on. Most things were at Wembley stadium and the pool. The atmosphere was nice but not a patch on this one."