A GREAT grandmother has reached a 'remarkable milestone' after clocking up 75 years of fundraising service to the Royal British Legion (RBL).

Marjorie Lathey of Bridport, who was born in Colchester, Essex, in 1931, has totted up the impressive service for the Bridport and West Bay branch of the legion.

She started collecting for the armed forces charity aged just 16 in West Bay in 1947.

When Mrs Lathey was seven, her mother died and she and her younger brother moved to West Bay to live with her uncle and auntie while her father served in the Second World War. 

When she left school, the family moved to Bridport and worked in the factory at Bridport Gundry where she met her late husband Stanley, whom she was married to for 43 years. 

Mrs Lathey, 91, who lives in St Swithins Road, also collects and fundraises for the British Red Cross in May and is now looking forward to the Bridport RBL Poppy Appeal in November.

Speaking to the Bridport and Lyme Regis News, Mrs Lathey explained more about why she got into fundraising and what she enjoys most about helping others.

"It is amazing when you think of my age - I'm nearly 92," she said. "It is all about meeting people, and if I did not go round, somebody would say: 'where were you?' and that sort of thing, so I have made many friends.

"They would miss me if I didn't collect and it was house-to-house in the old days.

"The last time I collected I sat outside Boots on my seat and people came up to me and said how good it was to see me."

Mrs Lathey, who has five grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren, has also been made honorary townswoman in Bridport for her efforts and keeps active by enjoying walks into town - despite her son telling her to slow down when using her walker. 

Reflecting on when she started her charity work in the 1940s, she said: "I was just asked if I would do it and I said yes because there was not a lot more for teenagers to do in those days.

"When I got married and moved to Bridport I used to collect around the top half of North Allington.

"I suppose I have helped a lot of people and I have got to know people so well and they have known me."