Wigan woman turns 100 years old and vividly remembers life during World War Two

A Wigan woman has celebrated her 100th birthday and opened up about her life during the war and how she feels about reaching this major milestone age.

Madge Heywood was born in Standish on September 20, 1926, has lived in the Wigan area her whole life, and she still lives independently now.

She attended Wigan Girls’ High School and was 12 years old when World War Two broke out.

Madge said: “When we were older, about age 14 or 15, we couldn’t go out because all of the buses to Standish stopped at 9pm.

“We had to take gas masks to school and they were these huge things. At school, we kept having practices in case of bombs and every school had a shelter which were only metal huts in the playground and we’d have to practise in them every week. We had to know what to do if the sirens went off too.”

“When we could go out at night, we went to the cinemas and there were never any boys about because most of them had to go to the forces.”

After the war, Madge met her husband, Eric, while working as a clerk in a job centre.

She said: “One day this handsome young man came in and I met him there, he’d come back from the war and spent four years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp.”

Madge then went on to have two children, Vicky who is now 71 years old and Tim who sadly passed away in an accident at age 38.

She also has four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren and describes the family as being “loving” and “close-knit.”

On reaching three figures, Madge said: “It feels odd, because as I grew up I saw all these people getting old and I never thought that it would be me!”

Recently, Madge’s friend who went to the exact same school as her has also just turned 100 and they celebrated together with a party.

When asked whether she has any secrets for longevity, she said: “No, I’ve lived an ordinary life and I lived in a little village, nothing special.”

However, Madge did give some advice to younger people, she said: “They’ve got to want to be fairly ordinary, to me, a lot of people seem to get the idea that you can lead a hectic life.

“Lots of people think their life is over after retirement and that there’s nothing to do, but that’s not right. You can still go out shopping, go out to the pictures, life doesn’t stop at a certain age.”

Vicky, Madge’s daughter, joked that that it’s the combination of a nice normal life and “prosecco” which has helped.

Madge’s 100th birthday celebrations began by presenting the match ball at the September 11 Wigan Warriors game which she absolutely loved as a long time fan

She also threw party and a birthday dinner before heading off on a trip to Whitby with her family.

Though she has not yet received her letter from King Charles III, she is looking forward to opening it.