Worksop: Mary celebrates 104th birthday - and her secret is whiskey in her morning tea!

Now officially the oldest woman registered in Worksop, Mary has this week celebrated her birthday at The Ann Daniels Centre, on Dadley Road, Carlton-in-Lindrick.

She has 27 great-grandchildren, 13 grandchildren and two great-great-grandsons and has attended the Lunch Club at the centre for the past 20 years.

Mary turned 104 on Tuesday 7th October and she told the Guardian: “My success to a long healthy life is down to a good days work, a good meal and a spoonful of whiskey in my first cup of tea in the morning.”

Friends and staff sang Happy Birthday and handed over a bunch of flowers and some presents as Mary blew out her candles on her cake.

A spokesperson for the Live at Home Scheme said: “She is an absolute treasure. She is always ever so grateful, thankful and independent.”

“She always says ‘you’ve got other people to look after other than me’ but I tell her that she is the only one who is 104!”

“When we handed over the flowers and her presents she shed a few tears but she absolutely loved it.”

Mary was born in Catcliffe in 1910 but moved to Dinnington when she was an infant with her parents George and Alice after her dad got a job at Dinnington Colliery.

She married her late husband Jim, who was a miner, in 1932, and went on to have five children of her own. Sadly Jim passed away in 1982, but she says she has been cared for by her ‘loving’ and ‘ever-growing’ family and her surviving children.

The Live at Home Scheme is a locally-based registered charity dedicated to improving the lives of isolated elderly people in Worksop and surrounding areas.

It is run by a small team of part-time staff and volunteers.