Spending most of your day curled up in a comfy armchair, surrounded by friends and family, sipping hot cups of tea, sounds like a pretty fantastic way to enjoy life — especially when you’re about to turn 103.

Beryl Bungay will celebrate the incredible milestone with a birthday party at Eglantine Villa in Horton Kirby on Saturday, October 22, surrounded by friends and family at the place she’s called home for the past four years.

The best thing about her birthday falling on a Saturday is that it coincides with Strictly Come Dancing. Indeed, the only thing Beryl loves more than dancing is a good cuppa.

Her son and only child Alan, 78, recalled: “She started out as a seamstress for Peter Robinson’s in Oxford Street in London and used to make a lot of dance dresses as a hobby at home.

“She was a top class dress maker, no question about that, and her and dad were very good dancers. The Bull and Victoria in Dartford used to have a very good dance hall.”

Beryl married her husband Bertram at Holy Trinity Church, which still stands at the end of Dartford High Street, on September 14, 1935.

She grew up in Swanley, but moved into Princes Road in Dartford by the time the Second World War began in 1939, by which time she was already 25 and was closing in on her fourth wedding anniversary.

Alan continued: “During the war years she would look after me, making sure I was down in the shelter. I remember that and it was scary.”

Beyond her time working in the capital, Beryl worked at independent Dartford businesses Vickers Armstrong and Peter Pans. She spent plenty of time in the town once she’d retired, too.

“She used to like going shopping and would have been in her element at Bluewater if she was younger,” said Alan.

“Every year she used to have a holiday in Spain, too. She and dad loved their package holidays, they were booked one after another.”

Henry Bert Bungay, who was known to everyone as Bert, died in 1993 at the age of 84, in itself a very fine age. Indeed, there are plenty of impressive numbers associated with the Bungay family.

One of Beryl’s brothers, Peter, reached the age of 84, and Alan celebrated his 51st wedding anniversary with wife Eydna, 74, earlier this month.

Eydna, who lives with Alan in New Ash Green, spoke of Beryl’s love of dogs.

She said: “She always had white west highland terriers as long as I can remember and she’s still got an absolutely brilliant appetite.

“We were here the other day and I couldn’t believe how much dinner she ate, and then had two doughnuts after that.”

Such is Beryl’s love of the terriers that she still cuddles up with a plush one called Max on her armchair. So long as she’s got him close by, and a fresh cup of tea with milk and one sugar, she’s a very happy lady.

Hand her a Mars bar and she becomes positively ecstatic, with her increasing age certainly not putting a damper on her sweet tooth.

Allison Warren, one of the carers at Eglantine Villa, said: “She really is like the heart and soul of this place. Everybody absolutely loves her. She always makes us smile and is happy to see everyone.

“You go and say ‘morning Beryl’ each day and you get this big grin and everyone loves her to bits.”

Fingers crossed there are plenty more birthdays to come such is the joy she spreads, and she can’t be far off being Dartford’s oldest woman already. The previous holder of the title, Elsie Garlinge, sadly died back in May at the age of 104.

So long as she keeps enjoying her well made cups of tea, and the occasional Mars bar, nobody would bet against Beryl reaching that age too.