Ellen... the 100-year-old ambassador for the generations that will follow her

One of Ellen McDonald’s friends regularly describes her as a walking miracle. It’s no exaggeration.

In 1963 she was given the last rites and having survived five bouts of cancer, when the 100-year-old received her telegram from the Queen earlier this year she had every reason to feel lucky.

Today Ellen is just a couple of months away from celebrating her 101st birthday and while her eyesight is not what it once was and she suffers from arthritis, she still lives at home on her own and with a little help from a carer manages to keep on top of the cooking and cleaning.

“The doctor says I’ve got a good brain,” she says. “I do occasionally forget things or lose my train of thought for a moment, but if I sit calm for a minute, eventually it all comes back. I think I do pretty well for my age.”

Ellen is one of a growing number of centenarians and for the first time the experiences of those who live to 100 and beyond in the UK have been the subject of research which hopes to cast light on how we treat and care for the very oldest in society.

Carried out by the International Longevity Centre with funding from Age UK, the report published today was produced ahead of the predicted centenarian explosion. Latest figures show that in 2010 there were an estimated 12,640 centenarians in the UK. However, over the next 20 years there will be a twelvefold increase in that figure, taking the population of 100-year-olds to at least half a million. The rise is going to be sharp and quick and many believe that the country is vastly under-prepared.

“Becoming a centenarian is arguably one of the most celebrated, if least understood achievements of our time,” says a spokesman for the ILC, an independent think tank. “There are a growing number of people whose working lives are now as long as their retirement years, but up until now research hasn’t paid particular attention to them in their own right.

“What we wanted to do was not only find out just how large the UK’s current centenarian population is, but compare the health, housing and quality of life of centenarians with those who are in their 70s and 80s. The aim is hopefully to provide a much more accurate picture of where we are now and where we need to be 20 or 30 years down the line.”

Like many of her generation, Ellen left school at 14 and immediately went into full-time work in a textile mill. She married fellow factory worker Jim in her early 20s and when he died 19 years ago, she lost not just a husband but her best friend.

“I will always remember the day I first met Jim,” she says. “The bosses at our factory were concerned there was nothing for the teenagers to do, so they decided to organise a free dance evening. I went with my friend and while I was waiting for her to come back from the toilet, two men walked in the door.

“I remember thinking what lovely dark hair one of them had and how incredibly debonair he looked with his white scarf. That was Jim. He asked me to dance and he didn’t let me go for the rest of the evening.

“I knew he was good man right from the start and we got married two years later. It was a very happy marriage and we never lost our love of dancing, we kept going well into our 70s. I still miss him, I knew he was ill, but I didn’t think I would lose him.”

The report acknowledges that while contact with the outside world is vital in maintaining quality of life, it’s the one thing many centenarians lack. While those who move into residential care often benefit from organised activities those who stay in their own homes often find their world narrows.

Ellen, a practising Catholic, is no longer able walk to church each Sunday and while the parish priest brings her Holy Communion her social lifeline now comes from her weekly visits to the Dewsbury Road Over 55s Club.

“I don’t walk so well these days and the roads near where I live are too busy. I’ve tried getting to church, but it’s really quite frightening and I know if a car does come out of nowhere I’m not quick enough to get out of its way.

“I come to the club to see people and I can still read as long as the print is large enough. Historical books are my favourite – I like to read what happened before I was alive.”

During the Second World War, Ellen worked as a crane driver at the Barnbow munitions factory in east Leeds and from there went to Leeds General Infirmary where she worked her way up from cleaner to orderly supervisor. With five boys to look after, there was never much money to spare and the financial implications of living to a grand old age have not been lost on the researchers at the ILC.

Many local authorities have already warned that the cost of caring for an increasingly aged population will far outstrip present budget provisions and poverty rates of centenarians is even more amplified.

“I’ve always been careful with my money, I’ve always wanted to pay my way,” Ellen says, handing over a pound to pay for two raffle tickets and a go on a football scratch card at the over 55s club. “I was part of a generation that was brought up to work. After the war when I left Barnbow, I knew I needed a little job. When I saw an advert in the paper asking for young women interested in working at the hospital, I walked up there pushing my two little boys. I still laugh about it now because I think the sisters on duty thought I was going to abandon them.

“I spent the first four years scrubbing the floors, which I’m sure is why I’ve got arthritis now. It was hard work even when I got promoted, but back then you did what you had to do.”

Ellen gave birth to her fifth son at the age of 45 – “I went to the doctor thinking I was ill,” she says. “And I came home knowing I was pregnant.” She has survived all but two of her children and admits that these days she hears about more funerals than she does weddings and christenings.

It’s a situation which will be familiar to many and as the population gets gradually older, one the ILC believes the country can no longer ignore.

“There is a pressing need for more research into centenarians so we can better understand their lives,” says the organisation’s spokesman. “They currently account for only a small proportion of the UK population, the equivalent of one in every 5,000 people, but this ratio is expected to grow to 31 in every 5,000 people by 2066.

“Centenarians are one of the fastest growing, but least understood sections of the population and we have to be wary of stereotyping. A recent study, for example, showed that far from being reliant on care, 41 per cent of those aged 85 and above still live independently and of the remainder, 39 per cent require help, but not on a daily basis.

“We realise that funding such research in a time of cuts in public spending is a challenge, but knowing what centenarians need is not only of clear advantage to the pharmaceutical industry and retirement housing sector. We know that centenarians are the most likely of any age group to live in institutional accommodation and to have exhausted their finances to pay for it. Given the high cost and the low desirability of this kind of accommodation, we need to start looking at what alternatives may be available.”

The report also makes a number of recommendations, including calling on energy companies to ensure the interests of older people are protected by giving them access to the best deals and increased social interaction within care homes. It also calls for Government support for the launch of an elderly equivalent of childcare vouchers to help pay for care in later years. Ellen has never been much of a worrier, but she admits that there are some times when it’s difficult to think about the future.

“I’ve never had depression in my life, but sometimes when you get to my age you can’t help feeling a bit down,” she says.

“I’m fine if the sun comes out, but on days where it’s grey from morning to evening that’s when I struggle. I know I am lucky to be as healthy as I am, but I also know that you can’t stop time. I might be 100, but I’m not daft.”

The ageing generation

More than a quarter of children born today and about a fifth of younger people under 20 can expect to celebrate their 100th birthday, the equivalent of 10 million people.

The population of those aged 85 and over is also growing rapidly. In the seven years between 2002 and 2009, the UK population grew by 4.2 per cent. However, the numbers of those aged 85 and above grew by 21.5 per cent.

In Leeds alone, which boasted just 114 people aged 100 plus in the last census, the figure could top 10,000 in the next 20 years.

The majority of centenarians are aged between 100 and 104, with only one in 20 centenarians aged between 105 and 115.