A GREAT-great-grandmother who won £20 on a lottery her Wallingford day centre just days before her 100th birthday said it must be her lucky year.

Lily Evans, nee Clark, of St Alban’s Court, was inundated with cards, good wishes and flowers as she marked the milestone on Saturday ahead of her birthday tomorrow.

As she blew out the candles with family and friends at a surprise buffet lunch, at nearby Oakdale Court, she remembered how frightened she was when she saw her first car.

Originally from Frome, Somerset, she worked as a nanny after she left school.

She met her future husband George Evans while shopping with her mother Annie and the pair married in 1928.

They had five children, Vivian, John, Donald, Margaret and Julie, although John died in an accident at work 10 years ago.

The pair moved to south Oxfordshire because of her husband’s job, as an electrician, and they set up home at Benson and then Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, before moving to St Alban’s Court. Mr Evans died 22 years ago from cancer.

A jigsaw lover, Mrs Evans attends Wallingford Day Centre once a week where she enjoys weaving baskets. She also loves reading. Before breaking her hip aged 96, she did all the gardening at St Alban’s Court.

Mrs Evans said: “I don’t know what the secret to a long life is, but I worked hard and I don’t drink and I don’t smoke.”