WORKING NINETY TILL FIVE

Great-gran still does 40hr week

TIRELESS shop worker Irene Astbury is still working fulltime at the age of 90.

She does a 40-hour week with a 9am-5pm daily shift at the family pet store she opened with late husband Les.

Irene, of Sandbach, Cheshire, says she will not be retiring after being named Britain’s oldest full-time worker.

The accolade follows Monica Evans, 89, being crowned the UK’s longest-serving employee after working at the same aeronautical firm in Warwick for 70 years. Irene said: “I don’t see any reason to give up work. I love coming here and seeing my family and all the friends who I have made over the years. I don’t work because I have to, I work because I want to. “My gran lived until she was 102, so I’m hoping I’ve got quite a few years left in me yet.” The great-gran started her pet shop in Macclesfield 36 years ago but grandchildren Gayle and Stuart Parks are now in charge. Gayle said: “She really enjoys getting stuck in. She’d be bored silly at home. She has served generations of the same families.”