BIRTHDAY surprises don't come much bigger than the ones arranged for 90-year-old Betty Noble.
The sprightly pensioner met relatives she had never seen before at a party in her beloved home town.
Mrs Noble, nee Moore, was forced to leave Darwen in the 1930s to look for work. She settled in Lancaster but has never forgot her East Lancashire roots.
Her daughter Joan Bradshaw organised a surprise birthday lunch at The Kiosk in Sunnyhurst Woods.
And she was also able to trace long lost relatives through the letters page of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.
As a bonus Sunnyhurst Wood Visitor Centre agreed to put up an exhibition of pictures showing old Darwen.
Mrs Bradshaw said: "My grandfather died in the First World War and that side of the family lost touch.
"Thanks to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph we have been able to trace some of her cousin's children who still live in Darwen and they came to share in the celebrations."
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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