‘I don’t feel 100’ says people’s champ Doris

ADEDICATED pensioner has been praised as an ‘inspirational’ member of her community ahead of celebrating her 100th birthday.

Lifelong Middleton resident Doris Moult turns 100 on Saturday (July 18) and will be celebrating with a small circle of family and friends at the sheltered accommodation where she lives in Alkrington.

She grew up in Rhodes and ran a vegetable shop on Oldham Road with her late husband Harry for many years.

She was also a committed charity worker, spending 50 years fundraising for the Children’s Society and in addition running a charity shop in Middleton into her 80s, which raised around £1,000 for the charity every week.

Doris said of her big milestone birthday: “I don’t feel 100! I’m amazed.”

On her secret for a long life, she added: “I don’t smoke, I don’t drink.

“My husband and I kept active too, we were still going sequence dancing in our 80s.

“When we’d had our dinner we always used to go for a walk.

“He’d say, ‘get your coat on, we’ll go down by the canal’!”

Doris and Harry were married in 1942 and were married for 67 years before he passed away in 2009.

In recent years, she has moved into sheltered accommodation in Alkrington, where until recently she wrote a weekly quiz for her neighbours, and is still a long standing part of the community at St Michael’s church in Middleton.

Doris said: “It’s a wonderful community.

“It’s nice to feel you belong.”

Although she had planned a big celebration of her birthday in the communal space at her sheltered accommodation, she will now be hosting a small number of church friends and family members living nearby in her garden on Saturday afternoon to mark the occasion.

Doris added: “When all this trouble is over, we’ll do something else.”

Rev Jackie Calow, vicar of St Michael’s, paid tribute to Doris as a ‘loved and adored member of St Michael’s’.

She added: “Many people have very fond memories of Doris and especially of her work with the Children’s Society.

“She has always been so supportive of any church activities and she is absolutely brilliant with children - she is passionate about their wellbeing and development.

“She has a very special relationship with the children in our community.”

And her niece, Eunice Mungins, who also lives in Alkrington, said it was ‘hard to put into words’

●●Doris Moult (centre), pictured with nieces Eunice Mungins (right) and Jean Reed (left), has been hailed as an ‘amazing’ and ‘inspirational’ figure ahead of her 100th birthday on Saturday (July 18). what Doris means to her family and friends.

She said: “She’s an incredible woman and still as sharp as she ever was - she’s very independent.

“Inspirational is the word I would use to describe her - I’m very proud to have her as my auntie.”