Cod liver oil proves elixir of long life as Nell marks her 107th birthday
FOR generations of children, cod liver oil was a daily horror as they were forced to swallow a spoonful of the foul-tasting liquid – but for one Birmingham woman it may well have paid off.
For Nell Jinks, a daily dose of the noxious supplement has seen her notch up a mighty 107 years young.
New Year’s Day was no ordinary milestone for the pensioner as she celebrated her birthday with her son and daughter-in-law – and Nell’s age makes her one of the oldest people in the country.
Her son, and only surviving child, Bernard, aged 80, revealed the key to his mother’s longevity.
“She has taken cod liver oil all her life and swears by it,” he said. “I am very proud of my mother.”
The pensioner was born Nell Barrett in 1910 in Summer Lane, near Birmingham city centre.
Mr Jinks added: “It was slums, back-to-back housing and outside toilets in those days.
“She was the eldest of 13 children so she used to be responsible for looking after the younger kids and she used to come home from work at lunchtime and go to the fish and chip shop to get scraps to feed the kids.”
Nell later moved to Nelson Street in Ladywood, which was still back-to-backs, and then Percy Road in Sparkhill.
She married her husband Ber- nard, at Birmingham’s St Chad’s Cathedral when she was 21 and they later had two children.
Mr Jinks said: “Mum worked as a french polisher. I used to go and buy all the ingredients from shops in Newtown and she used to mix them up.”
After Nell’s husband died aged 70 in 1980, she lived with her sister, Elsie, for 20 years, before moving to the Lucton House care home in Bournville.
Mr Jinks said: “She was quite active. She used to do the odd job for furniture shops up until she was in her 70s.
“About three years ago, someone from the back-to-back houses in Hurst Street came to talk to her and she gave them a lot of information about what was like.
“All the staff at Lucton House have shown her love and care.”
When Nell was born in 1910, George V had just been crowned king, the suffragettes were fighting for the vote and the doomed Titanic was under construction.
Scientists believe lifelong consumption of cod liver oil – said to be taken regularly by Tony Blair and Joan Collins – might protect against inflammatory diseases such as the bowel disorder Crohn’s and the skin condition psoriasis, and even counteract migraine and menstrual pain.
The secret, according to the scientists, is the omega-3 fats found within it. her life