Northamptonshire woman, 110, shares her secret to a long life

A 110-year-old woman said the secret to a long life was "healthy living, outdoor activities and fresh food".

Joyce Wooding celebrated her birthday on 6 September at Collingtree Park Care Home in Northampton.

She said she sometimes felt she was "too old".

"It's really too long to live because you've outlived your parents, your family - they've all gone - and my friends, most of them are gone now," she said.

Mrs Wooding was born in 1911, the same year as the coronation of King George V.

She is the 10th oldest person in the UK, according to the site Oldest in Britain, with Mollie Walker from Oxfordshire being the oldest at 112.

She has now received seven birthday cards from the Queen.

"You get one when you're 100, then you don't have another one until you're 105 - then you get one every year," she said.

Mrs Wooding - who had a sister and two brothers - said she lived "a real country life" growing up in the Northamptonshire village of Staverton with "the best parents you could wish for".

"My father was a farmer and we lived a very healthy life with a lot of homegrown food, our own pigs, hens and a big garden," she said.

"We spent a lot of time outside, not sitting with computers and things like they do today.

"We were out most of the time and had a very healthy upbringing with the best of food you could wish for - no takeaways or anything like that."

Mrs Wooding was too young to remember World War One, which broke out three years after her birth, but had memories of the Second World War.

"We used to do street warden [sic] and look for bombs with tin hats on and walk the streets to see if any had fallen," she said.

"You heard the roar of planes going over."

She married Leslie Scott Wooding in 1946, who had a manufacturing business in Northampton with a shop in the town where his wife worked worked for many years.

They lived in Wootton throughout their married life before his death in 1983.

Mrs Wooding said she had lost her independence reaching the age of 110.

"When you've been independent for so many years - you lose all that," she said.

"You rely on other people for everything.

"It's a long time to sit and do nothing when you've been used to being busy."

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