CLAIRE Lasker has lived through two World Wars, survived the London blitz and witnessed some of the most troubled economic times in our history.

However today, Mrs Lasker, of Abbeyfield residential home in Orwell Road, Felixstowe, is still going strong after celebrating her 106th birthday with friends.

Mrs Lasker, a keen walker who first moved to Suffolk in the 1950s, still likes to keep as active as possible and is regularly seen in the town centre on one of her strolls.

She said: “I like walking along the seafront. I can’t get down there now, it’s a bit out of my reach, but I used to go down there every morning and walk along the front.

“I will occasionally go now when someone takes me.”

Abbeyfield house manager, Dee Hindle, said: “She’s marvellous. She walks up the two flights of stairs and goes into town every day, she still does her walking.”

Mrs Lasker was born in Lancashire and moved to Bourne, in Lincolnshire, when she was about two-years-old.

She then moved to London before the Second World War and lived through the horrors of war time in the capital.

Mrs Lasker celebrated her birthday with a special party, thrown by the East Suffolk Association for the Blind, at the Trades and Labour Club in Felixstowe.

A couple of days later she was also joined by her friends for a special birthday meal.

Despite admitting she had no secret to a long and happy life, Mrs Lasker added: “I was always active, very active and a quick walker, but now people overtake me!”