Weymouth woman celebrates her long life on 100th birthday

The long and colourful life of Maley Abbott is being celebrated by family and friends at her home in Preston, Weymouth.

She may have turned the grand old age of 100 but Mrs Abbott is still a charity volunteer. She suffers from macular degeneration – a disease which affects the central vision - and gives up her free time to help the Macular Society.

When Mrs Abbott was 90 years old she swam 250 metres and raised £3,000 for the Macular Society.

A birthday party at her home on Tuesday was attended by close friends plus local councillors and former MP Richard Drax.

Mrs Abbott was born in Northamptonshire in 1924. When she was 16, her parents and her five-year-old sister were killed when a boat capsized in the River Ouse in Yorkshire.

She was left to raise her 12-year-old brother on her own.

She married her husband Percy, a D-Day veteran, in 1967. They were married for 35 years until his death in 2002.

In 1980, the couple moved to Preston in Weymouth. For many years she ran a caravan hire business at Haven’s Weymouth Bay Holiday Park.

Mrs Abbott, who has two children, five grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild, said: “I haven’t come down to earth yet today, the phone has been non-stop since 8am and visitors started coming at 10am, it has been non-stop.

Maley Abbott with her birthday cake (Image: Tom Lawrence)

“All of my family live up in the Midlands, I am from Northamptonshire originally, so it has been all of my friends coming in.

“I was hoping I would get a letter from the Queen, but unfortunately I outlived the Queen but I had a very nice letter from the King.

Maley Abbott with her card from King Charles and messages from friends and family (Image: Tom Lawrence)

"I am having a wonderful day, one of my best. My 80th was a good one, but I think this is going to beat it."

Mrs Abbott said: “We started to buy caravans, my husband Percy was from Somerset and he wanted to live in the South West.

“We met Ian, who was my GP, and Percy was very ill.

“Percy pulled him through and lived for 22 years after that.

“Ian and I have been friends ever since. He is a professor now and still comes to see me.

Maley Abbott at home in Preston (Image: Tom Lawrence)

“For my birthday, he has had a plaque put in with Percy’s name on it at the British D-Day Memorial in Normandy.

“I cried my eyes out when I heard it, it is so lovely."

For her birthday, Mrs Abbott asked that instead of receiving gifts, people gifted money to a fundraiser by her friends, who are cycling around the world to raise money for the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance.

Asked about the secret to her long life, Mrs Abbott added: “I would say hard work, being positive and not saying I can’t do anything. My mother always said there is no such word as can’t."