FRIENDS celebrated the 107th birthday of a ‘real treasure’.

May McDermott, who was in service in Dorchester during the Second World War helping a family and cooking for them as well as working at a rubber factory in Wiltshire which made gas masks, celebrated her 107th birthday at her home in Cynthia Close in Poole.

Staff and other residents of the sheltered accommodation bought her a cake and they had a quiet party.

Born on July 20, 1905, Mrs McDermott’s father was a policeman and her mother was a housewife.

She married her husband Frank, who worked for Texaco in Poole and they lived together.

Lynne Holloway, Mrs McDermott’s sheltered Housing officer, said she was a pleasure.

She said: “She is a real treasure.”

She said Mrs McDermott had been a keen horsewoman and a wonderful painter.

She said: “She loves watching the TV, especially Jeremy Kyle and has a lot to say about the stories that they discuss.

“She still has a wonderful appetite and her one wish is to meet Prince William.”