A woman who recently celebrated her 108th birthday has said the key to living a long life is to have plenty of pet dogs instead of having any children.
Ada Daniel was the proud owner of "a lot of greyhounds" when she was younger, and once joked that her fleet of pooches helped keep her young, in addition to the fact that she never had any children.
The woman now lives in Codnor Park care home in Codnor, Derbyshire, where she has lived since 2015, and was "excited" to celebrate her birthday last week after the care home launched an appeal for people to send 108 birthday cards to Ada.
The appeal was so successful that Ada received almost 300 cards, which she was given at a surprise party alongside an afternoon tea and some balloons donated following the call for cards.
Kelly Goucher, activity co-ordinator at Ashmere, which runs Codnor Park care home, told the BBC: "Ada hasn't got a lot of family left. She never had any children so she doesn't have any grandchildren so we just wanted to get her as many cards as possible. She quite likes that people know about her because of her age.
"She had a lot of greyhounds. She lived on Street Lane in Ripley and all of her greyhounds were also called Street Lane. She's definitely a character. I did ask her what her secret was once and she said it was to have dogs, not kids."
Kelly also said Ada had been talking about her birthday "since the beginning of April" and had been "quite excited" for the big day to finally come around.
The activity co-ordinator posted the appeal for cards on an Ilkeston Facebook page, and said that by the next morning, she already had 135 messages from people wanting to send a birthday message to Ada.
Ada was previously the subject of another card appeal for her 105th birthday, which fell during lockdown in 2020, where she received 200 cards.
Meanwhile, a 106-year-old woman recently confessed that her secret to a long life was a daily shot of coffee liqueur.
Esperanza Cortinas from Ourense, Spain, was born on December 4, 1916 and has lived through two world wars as well as two pandemics. Despite her advanced age she still enjoys dancing several times a week and also plays card games with her friends.
She told local media: "I still like to look pretty. If one day I don't, my daughter makes me. You have to take care of yourself. I go dancing several days a week, play card games, smile a lot, and besides, I have a daily shot of coffee liqueur."
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