A SALE centenarian was reunited with an old school friend on her hundredth birthday.

Laura Povah met fellow 100-year-old Olwyn Sanger at Timperley Care Home to celebrate her telegram from the Queen.

Laura, born on November 3 1914, hadn’t seen her old neighbour and school friend for four decades before being reunited.

“It was wonderful,” said Laura. "We lived next door but one to each other as children and went to school together.”

The pair got together after Laura’s family saw Olwyn’s own hundredth birthday notice in the Messenger earlier this year.

Laura moved to Sale in 1969 after previously working in the mills around Hulme and owning an off licence in Salford for 15 years.

She married the love of her life, Sam Povah, in 1940, with whom she was able to celebrate her 50th wedding anniversary.

Laura helped bring up her sister Isobella’s children, Janice and Roy, when brother-in-law Richard died in 1956.

The second youngest of eleven siblings, Laura’s large family means she has more than 50 nieces and nephews and is never short of visitors to her nursing home in Bucklow Hill.

She said the secret to her longevity was ‘strength of mind and to always look on the bright side’.

Laura celebrated her hundredth with 60 family members at Ashton on Mersey Rugby Club.

She enjoys reading, current affairs and seeing family.

Son-in-law, Kieran Ryan, said of Laura’s birthday card from Her Majesty: “She was delighted. From about the age of 90 she said she was going nowhere until she got the telegram from the Queen. She’s waited patiently for it since.”