What's my secret to long life? A full English every day ...and a lot of luck

MOLLY CELEBRATES TURNING 110 AT CARE HOME

- By PATRICK EDRICH

ONE of Merseyside's oldest people celebrating her 110th birthday said the secret to a long and happy life is a cooked breakfast every morning.

Mary “Molly” McTegart spoke to the ECHO from her bed at Orrell Grange Nursing Home in Bootle, holding a glass of fizz and surrounded by dozens of cards from members of the local community and the King and Queen.

In between hugs from the care home's workers and blowing out the candles on her birthday cake with “110” candles, Molly said her secret to life was “a good cooked breakfast with good bacon and sausage every morning” - as well as “a lot of luck and hard work”.

She added “saying yes to everything” including helicopter trips and a holiday to the Arctic past her 90th birthday, kept her young and happy.

Molly was born in Portland Place in Everton on January 4, 1916.

One of her earliest memories was being on a train with her dad in Ireland during the civil war of 1922-1923, taking shelter in a tunnel when Irish Volunteers leader and eventual president Eamon de Valera was shot at.

She attended Everton Valley School from the age of five until she received her certificate at 16.