A DAVYHULME woman who celebrates her 103th birthday on Friday (August 12), says the key to her long life is ‘keeping active’.

Madge Goddard still plays Scrabble, lives by herself independently - and only stopped driving when she was 95.

Madge continues to do housework, sewing, gardening, going out with her friends and shopping.

Commenting on the secret to her longevity, Madge, who has never married, said: "Most people give up too soon.They say 'I am too old to do that'.

"I can't do that. The longer you keep going with things the better it is."

Madge was born in Penistone in Sheffield in 1913, where she lived until 1939. During the same year, at the age of 26, she became a nurse during the Second World War.

In wartime, she also travelled to Cape Town and then New York, in a convoy, to collect the families of servicemen.

After the war ended in 1945, Madge became a teacher at a school in Eccles, before also teaching in Worsley. She retired in 1974.

The 103-year-old has been a Trafford resident for more than 60 years. She lived for 40 years in Derby Street in Urmston, and has been living at her current address in Davyhulme for more than 20 years.

Madge regularly attends Davyhulme Methodist Church, on Brook Road, and has a very wide circle of friends.

She will celebrate her big day with a meal with friends.