A GREAT-grandmother who was awarded a Red Cross medal for her voluntary services in Newport celebrated her 100th birthday yesterday with family and friends.

Beatrice Isabelle Raikes, who has lived in Newport for more than 90 years, celebrated the milestone birthday with a party at her home in Willowbrook, Bettws, with more than 70 callers coming to congratulate her.

Mrs Raikes was awarded the Red Cross 25-year medal for her service to Newport in 1977, and is a faithful member of St Mary’s Church, Malpas.

The mother of two, to Carol and Alan Raikes, grandmother of four and great-grandmother of six has lived through almost a century of Newport history.

Mrs Raikes, known as Beat to her family, was born in February 1912 in Pontyclun.

She moved to Newport in 1917 when her train driver father got a job in the area.

After marrying her childhood sweetheart Percy Raikes in April 1939, they moved to Graig Park Circle where Beatrice stayed for 67 years until she moved to Willowbrook in 2010.

Mr Raikes, who worked as a fitter at the Dos Works, died in 1968 and her son Alan died in 1996.

A life-long Argus reader, Mrs Raikes is a keen card player, a member of the Evergreen Social Club and an enthusiastic dancer at the church hall.

Mrs Raikes’ family said she has led a full life without ever leaving the British Isles and she is still “fully and unselfishly a family-orientated mother”.