Woman, 105, says secret to long life is Marmite for breakfast - and sherry before bed

  • last year
A widow who celebrated her 105th birthday says the secret to a long life is her daily routine of Marmite on toast for breakfast - and two glasses of sherry before bed.

Sprightly Joan Prince has lived through five monarchs, 28 prime ministers and survived two world wars and a global pandemic.

Surrounded by her family while celebrating her birthday, she said the secret to a long life is having Marmite on toast for breakfast and two glasses of sherry in the evening.
Transcript
00:00 Can you tell me what you did when you left school?
00:04 Well I left school at 14 and I went into my mum and dad's fish and chip shop
00:10 just cutting paper because they used to wrap fish and chips in newspaper in those days
00:17 at £2.60 a week and then I was promoted to behind the counter when I was 15
00:25 and I earned five shillings a week.
00:28 And how long were you doing that for?
00:31 I was doing that until I was at least 20 and then I got married at 21.
00:39 And where did you get married?
00:41 At St Anne's Catholic Church.
00:45 Is that the one that you still go to?
00:47 Yes, after all these years.
00:51 And do you go every single week?
00:53 Yes, it's nearly, very few of the congregations that I know now, they've all gone.
00:59 Yes, oh bless you.
01:02 And your wedding, tell me about your wedding, you got married just before?
01:09 Well the war had just started and everything was rationed so the people that lived around me
01:16 all put together and all baked something, baked a cake and things like that
01:21 and we had a tea in the, it used to be a tea room at the back of the old co-op,
01:28 you wouldn't know it now, and they all brought something and we had a lovely wedding tea
01:36 and I don't know wherever they got the food from because everything was rationed.
01:41 We had a lovely, really lovely meal and there was quite a lot of people there
01:45 and this auntie of mine that could play the piano, she played the piano for dancing
01:51 and we had a really, really lovely evening and that was it.
01:55 That's amazing, thank you. And then I think last question for here would be,
02:00 you told me a little bit about what you think your secret might be and you said about the Marmite.
02:07 Well my secret, the only thing I know that I do regularly and I've done since my husband died
02:14 45 years ago, is toast the Marmite and I have it every morning without fail, unless I'm on holiday.
02:23 That's as much as I can tell you about that and a glass of sherry in the evening, sometimes two,
02:30 and that's been a regular thing for quite a few years.
02:34 Oh and I forgot, a glass of hell's salt, a tiny little, I've got a little glass,
02:39 a little whisky top glass and half a teaspoon full of Andrew's liver salts and that's it.

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