An ex-nurse was “over the moon” after she hugged her youngest son for the first time in nearly a year on her 100th birthday.

The pandemic meant great-great grandma May Allsop, who moved to Greenbanks Care Home in Maidstone two years ago, could not have a huge party with her family.

But, she was able to hug her son Alan Allsop, 68, who lives in Barming, when he visited on her birthday earlier this month.

Although Mr Allsop has been able to visit his mum and talk to her through a screen, this was the first time he could cuddle her since the pandemic began.

He and his wife Margaret had to take lateral flow Covid-19 tests, which produce results rapidly, before enjoying their party-of-three.

The 63-year-old explained that his mum has poor hearing and struggles to understand what her relatives are saying over Zoom.

Speaking about his mum’s reaction to seeing him, he said: “She was over the moon. I am the only relative of hers in the UK able to see her at the moment.”

Her other relatives live too far away to visit during the coronavirus restrictions.

Mrs Allsop, who has 24 great grandchildren, had asymptomatic coronavirus four weeks ago.

Her son said: “It’s amazing, I can’t believe how flipping lucky we all were. At her age we would have thought it would have knocked her.”

He thanked and praised the care home staff for putting on the mini-celebration.

Mrs Allsop was born in Derbyshire and later moved to Nottingham where she was a nurse during the Second World War. She married Joseph Allsop the day before her 20th birthday in 1941.

Joseph served in the Royal Artillery throughout the war but afterwards the pair and eldest son Derek moved to Southern Rhodesia, now part of Zimbabwe, after he was offered work as a farmer.

During their time in Africa the couple had three more boys and performed with amateur theatre groups.

Joseph died in 1990 and Mrs Allsop remained in Zimbabwe until 2002, when she moved to Maidstone.

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