108-year-old attributes long life to Champagne and chocolate

108-year-old Yorkshire care home resident Dorothy Flowers has attributed her long life to Champagne, chocolate buttons and following horse racing.

Flowers enjoying a glass of fizz. Image: Facebook – Bupa UK (Southlands Care Home)

The Champagne-loving centenarian celebrated her birthday last week, receiving 670 cards after Bupa’s Southlands Care Home posted an appeal on social media asking for people to send Flowers a birthday message.

Speaking to Yahoo Style UK, resident manager, Helene Ballinger, said the “real secret” to Flowers’ longevity “has to be Champagne”.

“It’s the only thing we ever see her finish a glass of,” she said.

Ballinger also told the news site that Flowers has her own drawer, “which we keep full of chocolate buttons”.

A keen horse racing enthusiast, Flowers once worked for the betting control board colloquially known as The Tote.

She was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, on 22 October 1911. According to the Southlands Care Home, she is the oldest woman in Harrogate and the 68th oldest person in Great Britain.

After attracting considerable media attention, Flowers had a full week of birthday celebrations. She was visited by the Harrogate Advertiser, Harrogate Grammar School, Radio York, local company Party Fever, Stray FM, Harrogate Borough Council, BBC Look North and Killinghall Primary School.

In a Facebook post, Southlands confirmed that there had indeed been plenty of Champagne, birthday cake and music, courtesy of “Alan the accordionist” – all contributing to Flowers being “still up long past her usual bedtime”.