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Living independently — aged 105!

Posted onPosted on 8th Mar

One of Mansfield’s oldest residents, Margaret Rhodes, has celebrated her 105th birthday — in her own home, where she still lives independently thanks to support from Mansfield District Council’s Assist scheme.

Her granddaughter, Sally Dilks, said: “My grandma is fiercely independent and it is extremely important for her to be living freely in her own home.

“It is thanks to the council’s Assist and Lifeline scheme that she can live independently, knowing that help is on hand 24 hours a day.”

Margaret wears a Lifeline pendant around her neck, which means if she needs help in an emergency, she can contact Assist call operators. She once pressed for help when she fell in her garden, meaning an operator could alert her family that she needed help.

Coun Barry Answer, portfolio holder for housing, said: “Margaret is proof of the tremendous benefit it (the Assist scheme) brings in helping to keep people living in their own homes for longer.”

Margaret, who was born in Mansfield Woodhouse and was married to James Rhodes until his death in 1982, has one son, John Rhodes, two grandchildren, seven great grandchildren and two great great grandchildren.