An 100-year-old Stansted care home resident has shared her secret to living a long and happy life.

Margaret Goult, who lives at Care UK's Mountfitchet House, celebrated her 100th birthday on November 3 - and says that her key to life is to "always smile and keep on singing".

To mark the big day, staff decorated the home with balloons and banners and held a special afternoon tea for Margaret and her friends, with a birthday cake made by the home's head chef.

Home manager Joanna Duke said: "We all had a wonderful time celebrating Margaret’s birthday – she is a much-loved member of the Mountfitchet House family, always singing and putting a smile on our faces.

"It was an honour to be part of Margaret's special day."

Margaret was born in 1923 in Newmarket, Suffolk. During World War II, she was enlisted to join the Royal Artillery in the 93rd Searchlight Regiment, an all-female British air defence unit based in Buckinghamshire.

READ MORE

As a result of her service, Margaret was invited to a reunion on VE Day in 2005 to raise a commemorative plaque alongside Dame Vera Lynn.

Margaret met her first husband, Albert Reed, during the war, and they had three children and moved to Massachusetts before he passed away in 1979.

She married Edward Goult in 1984, returning to Newmarket, and they were married for 27 years before his death.