Bedford grandmother celebrates 105th birthday - although she's actually 106

Radhabai Kathane, better known as ‘Ma’, was presented with her special card by Susan Lousada, Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire at Puttenhoe Residential Home. She also got a card from the Lord Lieutenant and one from Bav Shah, High Sherriff of Bedfordshire.

Her big day was marked by a party with friends and family celebrating Mrs Kathane, along with Deputy Mayor of Bedford Borough Jim Weir, and Councillor Robert Rigby.

Despite receiving a card for her 105th birthday, Mrs Kathane is 106 years old. Back in September 1918, there was an error in recording her year – she was actually born two months before the end of the First World War.

She was the youngest of eight children, born in a small village in central India near the town of Bhandara, about 70 miles east of Nagpur.

Although the literacy rate was around one in 25,000 for girls when she was growing up, her father wanted to send her to school and her education was supported financially by Scottish missionaries in the area.

She moved to Nagpur for her high school education, he became the first first girl from her community in the whole of central India to pass her matriculation exam – the equivalent of modern GCSE in the UK.

Mrs Kathane became a teacher, and she married a fellow teacher in 1944. She welcomed a son, Raj, in 1948.

He moved to the UK, settling in Bedford where he worked as a consultant in child and adolescent psychiatry. In 1986, Mrs Kathane joined him in the town.

Raj said: “My mum is a vegetarian, teetotal, and non-smoker. She used to walk several miles every day, whatever the weather. Some days in good summer weather she might walk nearly 10 miles, even at the age of 95, and she was known as the 'walking grandmother of Bedford'.

“She’s very frail now and can't walk out of the house, but mentally she’s still sharp and does word-search puzzles for hours.”

David Yourin, manager of Puttenhoe Residential Home, added: “Mrs Kathane has a smile that lights up the room and is very popular with staff and residents.”