A CHILD refugee during the Second World War never thought she would live to 100 as she spent much of her childhood in hospital with all sorts of illnesses.

Betty Hunt, who lives at Teazleground Court retirement home in Trowbridge, celebrated the milestone on Saturday with her friends and family by her side, along with a card from the Queen herself.

Although the centurion, born to parents Alfred George Hunt and Louisa Hunt in Wandsworth, is feeling in good nick and only stopped taking the bus a few months ago, she is more surprised than anyone that she made it to 100.

“From the age of eight to 14 the hospital was like my second home. I got the measles and all sorts of illnesses, some of which meant I had to miss school for three months,” she said.

“I have never touched a drop of alcohol and I have always been a healthy eater, I just was quite unlucky early on in life.”

That bad luck continued for Ms Hunt as in 1941, after enduring months of bombing from the Germans, as her parents and her sister Peggy, left to stay with family in Aldershot for a few months - her brother Alfred did not come with them as he joined the war effort.

“I remember we hid in the shelter all day and all night from the bombs, one of which blew up the factory that I worked at which was just down the road,” said Ms Hunt, who was an expert embroider.

She and her family moved to Trowbridge in 1952, where she began working at Bowyers in the pie department - a job she held until 1977.

“I am focused now on reaching 101 and then we will see what happens from there,” she said.

“I have had a good life and I want it to continue.”