NO ONE expected her to live past the age of 40, but one Hampshire pensioner has proven everybody wrong, and then some.

Kathleen White, known as Kath, has celebrated her 100th birthday, writes Felix Morris.

The great-great grandmother, who has spent most of her life in Chandler's Ford, celebrated the milestone surrounded by her friends and family.

Born in 1916, Mrs White attended Otterbourne Primary School as a youngster and married her husband William, known as Bill, in the Winchester registry office on November 19, 1938.

Apart from a brief spell in Lancing, she spent her entire life living in Hampshire, which she considers her home.

Her granddaughter, Michelle Bunting, 29, said: “She always tells us the story of when she was born that she was a really tiny baby and they christened her when she was first born because they didn’t think she was going to live.”

But Mrs White defied the odds and continued to live a long and healthy life, and lived independently until she was 99 and a half years old.

Her daughter, Mary Freemantle, 63, says that she has kept her sharp mind through the years and said: “She doesn’t really do anything special to stay healthy, she just takes every day in her stride.

“She did books and books of word searches and I think that kept her mind so active that she just didn’t have time for it to go down.”

During World War Two, Mrs White took in an evacuee called Stan White from London and they became so close they still keep in touch to this day and he considering her part of his family.

Mrs Bunting, a housewife from Chandler’s Ford, said: “She is so with it, she is such an inspiration and it is nice because she can relay stories such as when she first met my granddad.

“She is such a kind and generous person and she is an amazing woman.”