Scotland’s oldest person has celebrated an incredible 110th birthday.
Marion Dawson from Houston says the secret to her longevity is abstaining from alcohol.
The teetotaler has never had a drop of booze and says this could be the reason she’s managed to make it to 110.
The great-grandmother has a wealth of experience accumulated over her more than a century living in Renfrewshire. She has survived two world wars, the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic and the coronavirus pandemic.
The Paisley Daily Express reported how Marion received her Covid-19 vaccine jab on her 108th birthday two years ago.
She was vaccinated by Dr Diane Fisher at her beloved Houston and Killellan Kirk on Tuesday, January 2021. According to the minister of the church, Rev Gary Noonan, Marion had never never missed a week at church until the coronavirus pandemic.
Up until last year Marion was living at home with her family in Houston. She now resides in Morar Living care home on Kilmacolm Road in Bridge of Weir, where yesterday she celebrated her birthday with family, friends and staff members.
In an interview with LBC radio, she said: “I’ve never touched drink of any kind. That’s maybe why I’ve lived so long. Lemonade is my stretch.
“I’ve lived in this village since the day I was born. I didn’t want to leave. I’m quite happy. I loved going to school here and being outside playing.
“I remember bits of the Great War and the Second World War. Watching fires from the hill.”
Staff who care for Mrs Dawson say she is “the biggest flirt in the home” and she joked that men are “falling over each other” to get to her.
“She has a lot of friends who come and visit and use the social areas in the home. Her daughter’s a very good support to her too and she’s living life to the full for a lady of 110.
“Local schoolchildren have even written a play about her. It’s a play all about her life and her hobbies and interests so hopefully at some point we’ll get them in to perform it.”
Their records show the oldest anybody in the UK has lived to is 115 years and 228 days. This was Charlotte Hughes, from England, who died on March 17, 1993.
Marion is a member of the Scottish Women’s Institute (SWI), they had a special message for her yesterday: “We would like to say a huge happy birthday to Marion Dawson, Scotland’s oldest woman, who is 110 today!
Marion is a member of Houston and Crosslee SWI and was born on 19 January 1913. Wow! She has lived through so many world events and times of change for women and Scotland. Many, many happy returns, Marion!”
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