CENTENARIAN Kitty Lang celebrated her 100th birthday with family and friends on Monday.

Mrs Lang is an active member of Carleton Court Residential Home, in Skipton, and enjoys regular trips out.

Relatives from Canada also flew over for a family get-together in Draughton for her birthday.

Mrs Lang, who was born in the West Riding, trained to be a nurse at St James' Hospital, Leeds, and spent a short time in Bexhill-on-Sea before returning to Yorkshire.

"I was married in 1934 to Arthur Lang in Leeds," she said. "He was a bank accountant and in those days when you were married, you gave up work."

The couple were married for 23 years until Mr Lang died and they have a son, Patrick, who lives in Draughton.

After her husband's death, Mrs Lang and her sister spent three months in the United States and Canada visiting relatives.

"We sailed to America because my sister had a heart condition and couldn't fly. It took us six days to get there. Princess Grace was on the same ship, but we didn't see her," she said.

"It was very exciting. We went to Connecticut and New York where we went to two shows and we came back to Montreal on a Greyhound bus. It was very nice seeing all my relatives and all the people, a real experience."

Mrs Lang said she never stopped being amazed at how different things were today.

"I'm amazed all the time when I think how different life used to be," she said.

Home owner Brenda Judson said: "She's a lovely lady, she mixes well with everyone and she's always cheerful."