'Dancing queen' wants donations for 100th birthday

Gwynneth Pedler will turn 100 on 23 July

For her 100th birthday, a woman in south-east London wants donations to a hospice instead of gifts - and plans to dance to ABBA at her birthday party.

Gwynneth Pedler, from Dulwich said she "set a target of getting to a hundred" and has learned a routine for her chosen song, Dancing Queen.

In the run up to her special day, she has received physiotherapy at St Christopher's Hospice in Sydenham and credits them with getting back the use of her left leg after an accident.

Born on 23 July 1925, Ms Pedler, a former head teacher of three schools and an air mechanic in the WRNS, once "accidentally" invited a whole class of students in Poland to come and stay with her in England. She also admits to being "a rather unruly child" as an evacuee during World War Two.

When the physiotherapists asked if she had a goal, she told them she wanted to do a routine to ABBA's Dancing Queen at her birthday party, attended by more than 100 people, to celebrate her centenary.

She said, "I thought it was ambitious but they said no - it wasn't."

So they have choreographed steps and wiggles with sweeping arm movements, which has also helped build strength and balance.

She said: "They do such wonderful work - not only with physiotherapy and art therapy - but all the other things that they do, in all sorts of other areas. The drivers are so calm, so helpful - it's a really lovely atmosphere."

Gwynneth Pedler grew up in London

As a child, she was evacuated from London to the countryside during WWII, where she recalls a very long walk to school, something she wasn't keen on.

"So we didn't go! We went out to where the farmer was thrashing the corn and he let us have a stick - to hit the rats as they ran out," she chuckles.

It was her time in the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) that taught her discipline, she says. And there followed a career in education - one of the things she attributes to having had such a long life.

"Keep yourself surrounded by people younger than you and get to know them and socialise with them - because you'll then learn how to be young," she advises.

'I'll get you to England'

After her retirement, Ms Pedler taught English in Poland - and once inadvertently invited her students to stay with her in England. All 27 of them.

"One of them said, 'We've never been to England'. And I said, 'Oh, don't worry, I'll get you to England'," she recalls.

They took that literally and went home to tell their mothers. Word got to the head and rather than cause disappointment, Ms Pedler made it happen.

"I hadn't got room for them - my bungalow was big but it certainly wouldn't fit 27 students. So I borrowed tents from the Scouts, tables to put food on and raised some money."

With an infectious can-do attitude, she talked her neighbours into bringing dinners for the children - for the next fortnight.

"Everybody helped out, all sorts of people. I was just the figurehead really," she says modestly.

Several of her Polish students went on to become teachers themselves and some are coming to her birthday party.

Raising money and awareness for St Christopher's Hospice, is the latest mission in this determined woman's remarkable life.