NELLIE ALDERSON never really had a chance to learn to swim when she was younger. She was too busy helping out on the family farm at Low Row in Swaledale, or bringing up her family of four.

But now she has a little more time to herself, she agreed to give it a try - despite the fact she'll be 100 this October.

Nellie said: "Water always fascinated me and I enjoyed a paddle when we went to the seaside when I was younger but I never got around to learning to swim.''

Nellie has had three lessons and hopes to go the baths as often as she can with staff from the Nightingale Hall residential home in Richmond, where she lives.

Her daughter Jo Etherington, who also lives in Richmond with husband Jack, agreed that her mother had never had time to learn in the past.

"She never learned to swim because she was too busy looking after her children, although we all learned in the river at Reeth," she said.