A SWINDON couple who had their dream wedding in Sri Lanka washed away by the Boxing Day tsunami are telling their story on national television.

Anna and Simon Miles, who finally tied the knot in Indonesia last year, are appearing on ITV's Weddings From Hell later this month.

The couple, who run Smiles Dental, in Gorse Hill, had originally planned to get married on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka in 2004, only to be forced from their beachside hotel by the tidal wave, one of the worst natural disasters on record.

The couple were staying in the Triton Hotel in Sri Lanka and it was the day before their wedding that the huge tidal wave struck.

Anna managed to capture footage of the incoming waves on her camera phone.

During the programme the couple recall how they escaped the torrents of water, running for their lives.

Speaking to the Adver just after the events, Anna could clearly recall the terror they went through.

"We were in a rose petal bath on the terrace of the hotel looking out to sea as the wave came further and further inland," she said.

"We jumped out of the spa bath in just our swimming costumes and ran back indoors.

"We followed the female masseuse back into the spa and discovered that there was no way upstairs."

At this point the masseuse from the hotel started tearing at the plasterboard wall and ripped a hole for the couple to squeeze through.

"We climbed through the hole and ran along a corridor to get to some stairs.

"People started to come out of their rooms with cut feet where the wave had crashed through the glass."

Simon added: "In seconds it (the water) was waist height you could hear all the glass breaking and wood snapping."

Four days after the waves hit, the couple were flown home, having abandoned their wedding plans.

They turned their UK reception into a survival party.

Another Swindonian who was caught up in the terror of the tsunami was Jeanette Orr, of Abbey Meads.

Jeanette, who is a survivor of the Paddington rail crash, had decided to treat herself to a holiday in the resort of Patong, near the paradise island of Phuket, following five years worth of legal wrangling.

Her daughter Felicity suffered arm and leg injuries after being hit by debris swept in by the wall of water.

Weddings From Hell is being shown on ITV1 on June 22.