FAMILY and friends gather at a Dales church tomorrow to say farewell to a remarkable woman who died at the weekend, aged 102.

Nellie Alderson's determination kept her active in the latter years of her life, even learning to swim shortly before her 100th birthday.

Brought up on the family farm near Low Row, in Swaledale, North Yorkshire, she married joiner, Wilfred Alderson, at 18 and moved to Reeth in 1920.

The couple had five children - Ella, Tommy, Jo, Ralph and Betty - and became active members of the village community.

Mrs Alderson was a member of the local Women's Institute and the women's branch of the Royal British Legion.

But tragedy struck the family when four-year-old Tommy died in 1934. Three years later, Mr Alderson was also to succumb to injuries suffered as a prisoner during the First World War.

Mrs Alderson's daughter, Jo, who lives in Richmond with husband, Jack, said: "She was a strong woman to carry on alone, which wasn't easy in those days."

Her son, Ralph, who lives in Barton, said: "I remember she broke her arm falling downstairs when I was nine and doctors telling her she would never be able to use it properly, but she said that was impossible because she had four children and just got on with it."

Moving from Reeth to Richmond to be nearer her grown-up children in 1966, Mrs Alderson became a resident at the town's Nightingale Hall Nursing Home in June 2001, where she died on Sunday.

A funeral service will be held at St Andrew's Church, Grinton, at 2.30pm, followed by interment. All are welcome, although only family flowers are requested.