A KIDDERMINSTER resident celebrated her 100th birthday surrounded by family and friends on Saturday, crediting them – and a sense of adventure – to her good health.

Margaret Powell marked her milestone birthday on July 23 with lunch at the Hogarths Stone Manor Hotel, as loved ones from home and abroad joined her for her special day.

The Cambrian House Care Home resident reminisced tales from her life with family and friends from across Worcestershire, Herefordshire, East Sussex, Wales and Spain.

Having spent time living in Germany and Canada, she is also well-travelled herself, and it is this keen sense of adventure which she partly credits as the secret to her good health.

She said: "The secret to reaching 100 is independence of mind and action and a sense of adventure, coupled with good food and maintaining contact with friends and family."

Born in 1916 to Gilbert and Edith Wodehouse, she was the fourth of six girls born in Harrow, Middlesex, growing up with sisters Mabel, Edith, Hilda, Sybil and Joan.

She briefly married during the Second World War before beginning an adventurous life working in Germany as a civil servant during the Berlin Airlift from 1948.

A move to Canada then followed, where she worked in Calgary in the banking sector.

She returned to England to live in Harrow and then Haywards Heath, to live near her eldest sister Mabel, before moving to Kidderminster in 2014 to be close to her niece and nephew.

Nephew David Cheshire said: "She was thrilled to see so many relatives at one time.

"We all helped her to celebrate the big day and it gave her the chance to reminisce over events during her long life."