Covid: Bristol survivor celebrates her 100th birthday

Friends and family helped Beryl Farrall celebrate her 100th birthday

A "gutsy" great-grandmother who recently survived Covid-19 has celebrated her 100th birthday.

Beryl Farrall, from Henleaze, Bristol, passed the milestone on Sunday as friends and family gathered outside her home to mark the special day.

Mrs Farral caught Covid at Southmead Hospital after she fell at home in November but suffered no symptoms.

"I never thought I'd get to be 100. I've kept going as long as I could and I didn't want to give up," she said.

Asked what the secret to reaching a century is, she said: "I've no idea."

Mrs Howell said her mother was "quite a character and just won't let anything stop her"

Her daughter, Thelma Howell, said: "She's incredible - she was driving until about five years ago. She bakes, reads, knits, sews.

"In the last year she hasn't been able to do so much but she finished a knitted nativity scene before Christmas.

"She is made of stern stuff. She fell over and broke her hip once, but was so determined to put the car back in the garage that she got back in the car and drove it in and hobbled [into her house].

"We came round later and decided we ought to take her to hospital and she had fractured her hip."

Mrs Farrall was born in a house on Cheltenham Road in Bristol and attended Colston's Girls' School.

She later studied dance, running her own ballet and ballroom dance school from her parents' house in Cranbrook Road.

Her grandfather built and ran cinemas across Bristol, including the Orpheus in Henleaze.