A brandy a day keeps the doctor away for Ellen Anderson, who celebrated her 105th birthday at the weekend.

The twist on the familiar adage has worked wonders for the centenarian, who was in rude health as she joined family and friends for a party on Saturday.

The birthday girl, who has lived in the same house in Isleworth since moving there with her late husband Fred nearly 80 years ago, wakes up each morning to a small glass of her favourite tipple.

"It's nice to have something to look forward to each morning but I only ever have the one and it's never done me any harm," she said.

"I went to hospital once and they asked what I drank, so I told them. They said that's fine as long as it's in small doses."

Ellen Pike, as she was then, was born in Hammersmith on February 15, 1909. She worked there as a launderer until marrying Fred, who she met shopping in the area, in 1935.

They moved two years later to the home in Isleworth where she still lives today, and had a daughter Pauline, now 71, who gave them one grandchild Martyn.

Ellen was a keen card player and would enjoy a game or two of whist every Friday at the WERFA (Woodlands Estate Resident Freeholders Association) Club in Isleworth.

She was also a prolific knitter and created woollen animals for the Mulberry Centre in Isleworth to sell well into her hundreds - making her easily the cancer support charity's oldest volunteer.

She celebrated her 105th birthday at her daughter's house just down the road in Isleworth. She was delighted to receive a new telegram from the Queen and pleased, if a little less thrilled, with her card from work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith.

Ellen still has some way to go to match the woman believed to have been the borough's oldest ever resident, Sant Kaur Bajwa, who died in July last year, aged 115 .

The borough's other known super-centenarian Rose Bicknell, also died last year, in September, aged 110.