A great grandad described as having "nine lives" is turning 100-years-old.
Joe Littler, from Bootle, survived being bombed out of his family home during the Blitz, working as welder on the docks during WWII "wrapped in asbestos" and contracting tuberculosis.
Speaking to the ECHO, his daughter Janet Campbell said it was "incredible" he was due to celebrate the milestone on February 26.
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She said: "It's just incredible he's got there really.
"Dad was in a reserved occupation during the war, he was a welder on the docks.
"When he first started doing the job, he was told he wouldn't live to see his pension in the job he was doing because they used to wrap themselves in asbestos to go up the mast and do the funnels.
"He's like a cat with nine lives. When I was a baby he had a TB and was in a sanatorium for nine months in 1954.
"He was bombed out of Berry Street where he lived with the family and then the family moved into Hawthorne Road in Litherland."
Joe met his wife Connie at Litherland Town Hall in 1950 and the couple danced throughout the decades during their 64 year marriage before Connie died in 2014.
A keen ballroom dancer, Joe learned to dance at Millington's Dance Academy in Bootle, opened by dancing queen Constance Millington.
And the grandad-of-two and great grandad-of-three's age did not get in the way of his dancing.
Joe ran a dance at the Seaforth and Litherland Constitutional Club until he was 94-years-old and then a monthly dance at the Hilltop Social Club in Litherland for another year, but had to stop due to macular degeneration.
The lifelong Everton fan was also the captain and secretary of his bowling team and is known as "Joe Littler the legend" wherever the family go Janet said.
She added Joe was "instrumental" in getting lottery funding to transform the bowling club for people to enjoy.
Janet described her Joe as a "fabulous" dad and "gentleman".
She said: "Fabulous as a dad, firm but fair and I don't ever remember him having to shout at us. Even if he looked at us we knew, we didn't want to upset dad.
"Hardly ever had a cross word."
Janet added: "He's just what you would call a gentleman, I have never heard him swear in my whole life and very, very rarely have I seen his lose his temper."
The dad-of-two moved in with Janet and her husband in Aughton aged 97, after living on his own for four years after his wife Connie died.
Joe will be celebrating his 100th birthday with afternoon tea with family and friends at the Aughton Institute on February 26.
