Memories washed away

BILOELA woman Jackie Kington has used her own pain as inspiration to try and help Theodore flood victims who have lost precious family photos.

Jackie feared a power surge which damaged her computer had lost her photos of her son Andrew and husband Wayne, who have died in recent years, but someone had copied them onto another hard drive.

Jackie has since bought an external hard drive to keep the photos safe.

Andrew was killed when a truck hit his car at the Callide Mine road intersection with the Dawson Highway on Match 10, 2007, while Wayne died on their property on November 8, 2009.

On top of that, Jackie also battled breast cancer.

“I know how hard it is to lose that stuff (photos),” Jackie said, who looked for a way to helped flood victims.

Her idea was to get people who have photos of Theodore people to drop them in at the Photo Centre, so Theodore residents may find photos that way.

Phillip Casey from the Photo Centre said they were offering a scan service for flood-damaged photographs as well as a discount for photos taken for insurance purposes.

Most photos, negatives and colour slides can be cleaned and air-dried using the following steps: Carefully lift photos from the mud and dirty water. Remove photos from water-logged albums and separate any that are stacked together, being careful not to rub or touch the wet photo surface. Gently rinse both sides of the photo in a bucket or sink of clear, cold water. Don't rub the photos and be sure to change the water frequently. Lay each wet photo face up on clean blotting paper, such as a paper towel. Change blotting paper every hour or two until the photos dry.