THERE were plenty of family members around Ellen Dybell to celebrate her birthday on Teesside, yesterday.

The widow had 20 grandchildren and great grandchildren to wish her a happy 102nd birthday at the Middlesbrough Council-run Albert Cocks Residential Home on the town's Thorntree estate.

One of her daughters, 77-year-old Ellen Clark said: "I look at her and myself and wonder who is who. She really is wonderful for her age; one of those get-up-and-go people. But, I think she can lead staff a dance in here.''

Liverpool-born Mrs Dybell moved to Middlesbrough from Hull about 80 years ago and lived in a long-since demolished street in the area of the old docks - a site which will be given new life as part of Middlesbrough's proposed £500m Middlehaven flagship redevelopment.

Mrs Clarke said: "It was a wonderful place, everybody was happy. No one had any money, but we were happy."

She said staff at the home had given her mother a new lease of life.

"I must thank the wonderful people at this home, otherwise she would not be with us," she said.

"When she first came here, she did not want to live. But the ladies here do a wonderful job."

* Pensioner Doris Atkinson celebrates her 100th birthday at Levick House, in Cambridge Road, Middlesbrough, today. She will be joined by her family and members of the Avenue Methodist Church where she is a regular attender.