World's oldest volunteer, 103, still serving tea in hospital cafe

An 103-year-old woman has been crowned the oldest female volunteer in the world after decades of helping out in a hospital cafe.

Despite her old age, centenarian Beryl Carr goes in one day a week to volunteer at the Friends Caf in Ealing Hospital, west London. Beryl started working in the hospital as a sprightly 80-year-old in 2003, preparing food and working on the till. Now, after more than two decades of service, Beryl has been being listed in the online Guinness Book of Records as the oldest female volunteer in the world.

The legendary helper says she has loved every second, and revealed what has kept her volunteering for so many years despite her age.

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She said: "I've made a fair few sandwiches in my time but I really enjoy the social side of it. I can't think of anything worse than being stuck in front of the TV all day.

"The great thing about volunteering is that you are helping other people but in funny way you are helping yourself as well. Volunteering gave me a new lease on life and it is something I would recommend to anyone regardless of their age."

Ann Cousins, who runs the Friends Caf, praised the record winning volunteer for her extraordinary commitment. She said: "Beryl is a bit of an institution in the hospital. Everyone knows who she is and loves chatting with her."

Beryl was born in 1922 when George V was on the throne, Gandhi was imprisoned for opposing British rule in India, and archaeologist Howard Carter unearthed Tutankhamun's tomb.

She survived the Blitz during World War Two which included being bombed out of her home and helped the war effort by sewing barrage balloons and working as a fire watcher.

In 1942, she met her husband Bill at a dance and they were married for 60 years before his sadly died. Together they had a daughter, Val, and Beryl moved back to London, after spending most of her life in Cambridgeshire, to be closer to her.

The Centenarian, having lived through the WW2, shared her own thoughts on the current state of the world and said it is hard to see all the conflict on the news in recent years.

Beryl said: "We spent a lot of time in the bomb shelter in our back garden and one of the nights we chanced sleeping inside there was an air raid and the house was hit. I ended up under a cupboard covered in plaster.

"It's terrible to see all the news of war on the TV nowadays. When I see those pictures it reminds me of what I lived through in London during the Blitz. They weren't easy times and people forget that rationing continued long after the war."