Trending

Derbyshire woman sent floods of cards for 108th birthday after care home appeal

Hundreds of members of the public have helped Ada Daniel celebrate her landmark birthday today.

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 1st June 2023

A woman from Derbyshire has received floods of cards after her care home put out an appeal to celebrate her landmark birthday.

Ada Daniel is hitting a milestone that not many get to reach today – her 108th birthday.

Born in the picturesque Derbyshire village of Ambergate all the way back in 1915, and living in the nearby town of Ripley with her beloved pet Greyhounds for most of her life, Mrs Daniel had a successful career working at Belper Mill for 27 years before her retirement.

And also before going on to become, what Oldest in Britain has confirmed, is currently the 65th oldest person in the UK.

Mrs Daniel has lived at Codnor Park Care Home since 2015 now, and it was the staff at this Derbyshire care home who decided to put out an appeal on social media asking that kind members of the public send birthday cards.

ADVERTISEMENT

They hoped to get 108 cards to celebrate her 108th birthday.

This isn’t the first time staff at the care home have put out a public appeal for cards, as they did the same for Mrs Daniel’s 105th birthday during lockdown back in 2020, and received that number and more.

ADVERTISEMENT

And according to the home, this time has proved just as successful as the last, the BBC reports.

“Ada hasn’t got a lot of family left,” explained Kelly Goucher, who is the activity coordinator at Ashmere Derbyshire – the company that runs the care home.

“She never had any children, so she doesn’t have any grandchildren, so we just wanted to get her as many cards as possible… [and] I woke up to 135 messages the following morning of people wanting to send cards.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Ms Goucher described Mrs Daniel as “a character” at the care home, and when asked what her secret to a long life was one time, she said it was “to have dogs, not kids.”

Read more:

“She quite likes the fact that people know about her because of her age,” Ms Goucher added.

Featured Image – Ashmere Derbyshire