A centenarian who was married for 74 years said the key to a happy relationship is to "put one another first". Tessa Gay recently celebrated her 105th birthday with family and staff at her care home in Manchester, where she received a special birthday card from the King, five years after receiving one from the late Queen Elizabeth II. Great-grandmother Mrs Gay, who met her late husband Jack when she was 19, described him as a "lovely man – very considerate".

And she revealed: "You wouldn't know it from the outside, but he was a very soft man underneath – I was number one!"