FRIENDS and family were on hand to help a Breadstone care home resident celebrate her 100th birthday last week.

Marian Brain, originally from County Durham, who was born on June 14, 1917, was joined by her family and staff at Breadstone House Care Home to mark the milestone.

Born during the First World War, after leaving school she worked on her father’s farm until the outbreak of the Second World War when she went to work in an ammunitions factory.

It was during her time at the factory that she met her first husband, Jim Irwin, and the couple were married in 1945.

Their son, Thomas Irwin, was born in September 1946, a year before the sudden death of Jim in 1947.

Together with Thomas, Marian stayed in the Newcastle area where she worked as a dairy maid.

In 1953 she began working as a house keeper until 1955 when she met her second husband, Tom Brain in Buckinghamshire.

A year later they married and moved to Uxbridge before having two daughters, Angela in January 1958 and Pauline in March 1959.

That same year they moved to Cheltenham for Tom’s civil service job where Marian became a member of the mother’s union and women’s institute at Prestbury.

In 1973 their marriage dissolved, leaving Marian to bring up her daughters.

Later in life she moved to Tewkesbury where she was a regular churchgoer to the town’s abbey and where she also collected Maundy Money from Princess Anne.

Following health problems and a dementia diagnosis, Marian moved to Breadstone House in 2009 where staff say she has since “flourished”.

On Wednesday, her family joined in celebrations for her 100th birthday at the home.