Biker ball for 100-year-old
HARLEY FAN GREAT-GRAN SURPRISED AS SHE HITS HER CENTURY
THIS Newcastle great-grandmother was given a special surprise for her 100th birthday when three Harley-Davidson motorbikes were brought to her party.
Margaret Borrowdale and her husband Bill used to cycle around the North East on a tandem bike, but when they welcomed a baby daughter they decided to swap their wheels for a Harley-Davidson.
The couple added a sidecar so they could take their daughter, June Hetherington, on their adventures around the country.
To mark Margaret’s 100th birthday, three Harley-Davidson motorbikes from the Gateshead dealership were brought to West Farm Care Home in Longbenton for her to enjoy.
Margaret, who was born in Ouseburn, said: “We used to go all over the country on the bike.
“We used to camp and it was Harley-Davidson with a sidecar.
“It was an ex-Army Harley-Davidson and there were four friends.
“We were away every weekend or went every Sunday going to different places – Scotland, Cornwall, it was great.”
Margaret and Bill, who died in 1990, later kept up their travels by heading abroad on coach trips to countries such as Switzerland and Austria.
Margaret has two granddaughters, Leigh Lawrenson, 43, and Lynn Hawdon, 45, and great-grandchildren, Rachel, 13, and Aaron Hawdon, 10.
At her birthday party yesterday, Margaret was presented with a telegram from the Queen by her daughter.
June, of Killingworth, said opening the telegram was brilliant.
She said: “It was great occasion. You never think it is going to happen to your family.
“I think my mum must be about the oldest person to have lived in the family.” Margaret, who was made a Freeman of the City of Newcastle in 2011, enjoyed a party at the care home with her family and friends and will be having another one over the weekend.