SINGLE life and the odd drop of whisky have kept Clara Riley smiling up to her 101st birthday today.

Clara celebrated her special day with friends and staff at Longshaw House Home for the Elderly, Blackburn. A former care assistant, Clara moved to the home from Tockholes seven years ago.

A member of staff said: "She's very friendly and very strong - we think that might be because she never got married! Next year she will have been alive in three different centuries and two millennia."

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