a KEEN cook who was a nurse in the Second World War celebrated her 101st birthday in Monmouth last week.

Gwen Kerr now resides in The Priory Care Home in Llandogo but was a familiar sight in the Monmouth Health Foods shop which her daughter Jane Duke ran over 30 years ago.

Gwen used to help with the pricing and kept an eye on stock levels until the business was sold to Holland and Barrett.

She met up with family and friends at the Nelson Garden where they donated a teak bench to the garden which they found in a hedge!

Son-in-law Lyndon explained that they had bought a house in Suffolk and were clearing out the gullies and hedges "and found this bench abandoned amongst the undergrowth."

Gwen retired to Wyesham with her late husband Rob and had the bench in her garden, so it holds many memories for her.

She had chocolates and flowers and a bottle of sherry from Spain for her birthday, but her treat was a Chianti and a pizza at Pizza Express with her grandsons Chris and Olly, who both went to school in Monmouth.

"Her secret to a long life? "Eating well and not drinking too much" she said!