It's a miracle Irene Anderson lived to see her centenary, which she celebrated at Heston House last Thursday (February 27), given her daredevil youth.
The former factory employee used to cycle along the Great West Road to work, hitching a lift on the back of buses to speed up her journey - long before a young Marty McFly used the trick in the Back to the Future films.
She was eventually banned from the bike by her late husband Matthew, who decided it was too dangerous after she narrowly avoided injury in a crash, though he continued to cycle.
“She was quite the daredevil in her youth. She thought nothing of grabbing onto the back of buses as they circled roundabouts,” said her daughter-in-law Anne Anderson.
Irene was joined by her family and Hounslow mayor Sachin Gupta for a party at Heston House care home, in Vicarage Farm Road, Heston, last week, where the biggest danger was the candles on her cake.
Born Irene Pethers on February 27, 1914, she was raised in Greenwich, where her mother used to run a pub.
She met her husband-to-be after he took part in the Jarrow March to Westminster to protest against unemployment and poverty in the north-east.
Together they moved in 1934 to the Worton estate in Isleworth, near the sewage works where he was employed, shortly after the estate was built.
She worked on the production line making planes during the Second World War, before joining the Macfarlane biscuit factory in Brentford’s Great West Road. She ended her working days in the canteen at Watney’s brewery.
The keen gardener had two children and as well as having several grandchildren and great-grandchildren recently became a great-great-grandmother. She lived in the Worton estate for most of her life, before moving to Heston House in her late 90s.
