customer gets 100th birthday card from the king

“There’s no secret, just hard work.”

That’s what believe housing customer Mary Shaw, of Seaham, County Durham, had to say when asked for the key to longevity, after celebrating her 100th birthday.

Mrs Shaw, originally from Murton, worked as a domestic cleaner when she left school then in an RAF rehabilitation hospital during the Second World War.

She said: “I wanted to sign up, but my father would never let me.

“I did do work of national importance by caring for the injured, looking after the rooms and serving meals. I had a big gong to ring for them at mealtime.

“I always kept working, I had lots of jobs including at the miners’ clinic and cleaning at Co-op in Seaham and then Deneside.”

Mrs Shaw’s late husband, Ernest, was a Bevin Boy – conscripted to work in the coal mines during the war – and continued to work as a miner at Dawdon Colliery.

With three sons, John, Edward and Jim, she was always busy but made time to enjoy regular bingo nights out.

“I used to go with my mother, she’d sit with her coat on for an hour waiting for me,” she recalls.

“It used to be on all round here, somewhere different every night if you wanted, but I cannot say I won much.”

Mrs Shaw is thought to be the first believe housing customer to receive a 100th birthday card from King Charles and the Queen Consort.

She said it was “lovely” to receive a card from the Royal couple and that she’d enjoyed celebrating her momentous birthday at a party with 60 loved ones.

Kim Corfield, a Neighbourhood Officer for the County Durham-based housing provider, visited Mrs Shaw at home to wish her well and deliver a hamper of Ringtons goodies.

Kim said: “She is fabulous, I could have talked to her all day.”