THE woman whose masked face became an ominous symbol of the London bomb attacks made a "dramatic" recovery, her sister has said.

Davinia Turrell, 24, was photographed clutching a surgical burns mask to her face as she stumbled from the carnage near Edgware Road Tube station.

Speaking publicly for the first time at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Ms Turrell's sister, Louise Wells, said she "is doing really well".

Mrs Wells, 29, added: "She has started to laugh and joke again. She is a very kind person, caring and constantly worried about other people. She is more worried about the other people in the accident than herself."

Her sister suffered both superficial and more serious burns to the left side of her face, Mrs Wells said.

"A lot of them are superficial," she said. "There are a lot more people out there who have suffered a lot more than Davinia.

"She has only had one operation - on the Friday evening when she came here. Ever since then she has been making a dramatic improvement."

Mrs Wells praised the quick-thinking of former firefighter Paul Dadge, 28, who was pictured helping her sister to safety after spotting her standing alone on a street corner.

"I would like to thank him for calming her down and keeping her calm. He was amazing."

Ms Turrell would like to see him one day, but is still "very nervous".

She also paid tribute those who had given Ms Turrell the surgical mask. "It was really good how they put the mask on her straight away. That helped her a lot."

The 24-year-old, a non-practising barrister employed as a corporate tax trainee, was on the way to her work near Paddington at the time of the blast.

Her boyfriend and father, David, of Little Burstead in Essex where the sisters grew up, have comforted her since Thursday. Their mother died earlier this year after a long illness.

But Mrs Wells, an Edinburgh project manager, said they had not spoken to her in detail about the attack itself. "She remembers a blast and a ball of fire, but that is all she remembers," she said.

The family tries not to upset her by asking how she feels rather than what she remembers.

It was "too early" to say whether her sister would fully recover from her injuries, Mrs Wells added.

"She is concerned that there are a lot more people out there who have suffered a lot more than she has. She is just thankful to be alive."