A village “queen” who turns 107 years old on Christmas Day has had a month of celebrations including a message from Cliff Richard.

Gladys Banks has been dubbed the “Queen of Borough Green” having lived there for more than 40 years, and will have a host of treats to mark her mammoth birthday.

These have included a surprise party at her Tuesday “Chatty Club”, featuring a recorded happy birthday message from the legendary Mistletoe and Wine star, a birthday cake and a keyboard player delivering all Gladys’s favourite tunes.

She has already enjoyed the Malling village singing happy birthday at the annual Christmas light switch-on earlier this month and opened sackfuls of birthday cards.

Having her birthday on Christmas Day has always been welcomed by Gladys who remembers childhood birthdays being filled with “lots of nice food and family”.

Speaking about her combined Christmas and birthday celebrations, Gladys said: “We used to get a shiny new penny in our stocking, a piece of coal and a magic colouring book for Christmas and that was it.

“You didn’t get all the stuff children get today. They get far too much.”

As for Christmas dinner, the pensioner said they couldn’t afford the traditional turkey when she was little.

“We used to have chicken when I was very young,” she said.

“Everything was on a much smaller scale but we were still happy. We had a big family and we were all together.

“We used to go to Sunday school and carol services in those days.”

One of Gladys’s favourite memories is of a doll’s house her mum made from a shoe box.

“She divided it into separate rooms with the card and made little ragdolls. I thought that was wonderful.”

As she got older her niece suggested she start having two birthdays “like the Queen”, so she added another celebration in June too.

But these days she just confines the festivities to the whole of December and has already had a host of birthday parties.

Now, over halfway through her 11th decade, Gladys shows no sign of slowing down and is only at home one day a week while the rest of her time is spent outside either getting her hair and nails done, enjoying her weekly massage or meeting friends for coffee.

The 107-year-old used to work for a London pharmaceutical company and has eight grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.

She has lived on her own since her husband John died 20 years ago and only this year finally gave in to having a carer coming to visit for one hour a day.

The great-great-grandmother, who loves singing and dancing and “has a song for everything”, told KentOnline her secret of a happy life.

“Be kind to each other and do what you can for others,” she revealed.