KEEPING active is Mabel Ellen Taylor’s secret to a long life as she marked her 100th birthday today, Wednesday.

The Meadow View care home resident in Penketh had her family visit her to share her special day and said she was really pleased to receive her telegram from the Queen.

The great grandmother, who has four children and nine grandchildren, was a sales assistant at the fabric stall Harts on Warrington Market and a life-long member of the Bethel Free Church.

Her husband William, a storekeeper at Daresbury Nuclear Physics Laboratory, died aged 64 in 1977 but Mabel believes her secret to longevity is walking a lot, gardening until she was in her early 90s, travelling abroad and avoiding smoking and drinking.