A GRANDMOTHER who has celebrated her 106th birthday says the secret to a living longer is to have a quiet life and a healthy diet – but that you can have lots of fat and butter.

Amy Hawkins, who is among the oldest people in Gwent, marked her birthday on Sunday with a party at The Bell Inn in Redbrook, Monmouthshire, surrounded by friends and family.

The mother-of-one said it had been a “very lovely day”.

“I feel fine, today has been marvellous,” she said.

Mrs Hawkins, who lives with her only daughter in Monmouth and is still fully mobile, says that she hasn’t been to the doctor for at least ten years.

“I do not like doctors or tablets, I do not take anything regularly,” she added.

“I never go to the doctor, it is probably 10 years since I went to the doctor.

“I haven’t had a headache for 40 years.”

Born in Cardiff, Mrs Hawkins lived most of her life in Newport, where she worked as a window dresser.

As a teenager, she was a dancer and toured the country doing pantomimes.

She got married to a commercial artist when she was 27 and, at 36, she became a mother. She now has two granddaughters, a great grandson and a great granddaughter.

During the Second World War, she was a fire watcher, raising an alarm in emergencies.

In one attack during the war, she said she remembers six people died in her street.

“I can’t trust my knees and I need a walking stick but I reckon that, for a 106-year-old, I am doing alright,” she said.

“I have had a normal, quite life - nothing very special, but I have always enjoyed my life.

“I have always been sober, except for the occasional drink.

“I have always had consideration for others, I always say do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you.

“I think my diet is pretty good. I eat a lot of fish because it is good for you, but I also love butter, I always have lots of it.”

Her daughter, Rozi Morris, described her mum as someone who has never been afraid of change.

Ms Morris, a singer, said: “She is not an old-fashioned person at all and she is very understandable.

“She has dedicated her life to me.”