'I'm Britain's oldest worker - I'm 98 and doing my job keeps me young' - video Dailymotion

SWNS

Britain’s oldest worker has no plans to retire at the grand age of 98 – saying his job “keeps me young”.  Ivor Ward is still clocking on four days a week as a production operative at health company EM Pharma.  He started work at the firm when he was 80 following a career which included jobs in the Army and being a professional poker player.  He did retire when he was 79 but only managed one day before he got "so bored" he went job-hunting and joined EM Pharma near his home.  He now enjoys weekends drinking with his younger colleagues and playing poker with friends.

Transcript

00:00 My name is Ivor Ward, I'm 98 years old and I work at East Midlands Farmer in Rosalie.

00:07 The only other alternative is being alone, sitting all day in the house,

00:12 because all my friends and everything, our younger people in their 50s and 60s, everyone's working,

00:19 and I would tend to me up the wall just sitting there and doing nothing.

00:26 I had one day of retirement and then I came back to here and I've been here 18 years now,

00:34 so it's not like work, it's like coming home. It keeps me active and that's all you need,

00:41 and the company keeps your brain active. I'm alright at night, I have lots of friends,

00:47 so I'm out most nights playing poker or quizzing or drinking or whatever. Anyone who's a retirement

00:58 agent and lonely, I recommend for retirement people to come back, and I'm certain that quite

01:07 a lot will come back, because it's alright, it's nice to start off with having this free time,

01:14 but if you can't do anything a lot about it, and a lot are just on their pension, they can't go

01:21 dashing here and there. So it's a big thing, but I think that

01:27 there is a workforce out there that would come back if they had the opportunity.

'I'm Britain's oldest worker - I'm 98 and doing my job keeps me young'

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