Residents at Hall Grange Care Home have 100 reasons to celebrate today as they mark a very special birthday.

May Attree will turn 100 years old on May 25 and all the residents and staff at the Shirley care home are invited to the centenarian’s birthday bash.

Activities coordinator Carol Henderson said: “We are having a big party for her on Monday with cakes and posh tea.

"The Queen’s letter will be arriving and will be presented to her during the party."

May was born an only child in Newport, Wales, on May 25 1915, and will spend the day with her daughters and grandchildren.

She said: “As long as you have no aches and pains and you can get up and have your breakfast life goes on.”

May’s daughter Juliet Heyer, 72, lives in New York and has flown to the UK to be with her mother on the special day.

Grandchildren Joseph, 3, and Sarah, 10, live with May’s other daughter Christine Cooper in West Ham, and they will all travel to Shirley for the family’s landmark occasion.

May said she has been very lucky with her health and although she uses a walking-frame to aid her she is happy to still be walking at all.

She enjoys walking around the garden at the care home and would like to keep a chicken as she did in her own garden for many years.

Not one for the limelight, May said all the attention she has been getting is ‘a bit silly’.