A popular newsagent who recently retired after selling papers outside Sutton station for 26 years is alive and well despite rumours she had died.

Josie Capone, 63, from Kennington, retired from her stall in early November after having emphysema and pneumonia diagnosed.

But an ambiguous notice appeared on the wooden hut, which still stands outside the station, over Christmas and rumours began to circulate that she had passed away.

Josie, whose family have sold papers in Sutton since the 1920s, received a call from a friend asking if she was still okay.

She said: “The notice fixed to my old stall reads like I’m dead. I may not be in perfect health but I’m definitely alive.

“I have got up at 3am, six days a week for the past 26 years and am now enjoying my retirement. I’m doing absolutely nothing at the moment, just lazing around.”

“I wanted to keep working the day I went to hospital but the doctor said my lips had gone blue.”

On top of her deteriorating health, the arrival of the Whistlestop shop outside Sutton station a few years ago signalled the beginning of the end for Josie’s stall.

Then the launch of free London newspapers made life increasingly difficult for Josie.

Phil Bossey, who runs Flowerscents next to the station, said: “I know Josie well and she was a real character around here. She is very abrasive but she was a street trader, which made her a tough cookie.”

Phil Mack, a regular in the Old Bank public house, said: “She was a lovely lady. But if she didn’t like you knew about it fairly quickly. She didn’t mess around. Everyone misses her round here.”

Carl Thorne, a former colleague, said: “A couple of kids tried to steal her change bag once but Josie clobbered them round the head with a paper and they gave it back, she is no shrinking violet.”

Having smoked 40 cigarettes a day for most of her life, Josie is now down to 10-a-day, which she claims is keeping her away from the doctors.