A Durrington woman opened the week of her 106th birthday with a bingo-bash. 

Rene Boyce celebrated her birthday with the game she likes to play most: bingo.

The soon-to-be 106-year-old was dumbfounded when this journalist admitted to never having played the game.

The Friendly Tuesday Club, held at Antrobus House in Amesbury, holds weekly bingo games, but Rene frequents more than just theirs’.

 “You haven’t played bingo before? You haven’t lived!” Rene exclaimed, surrounded by coloured pens and her friends.

Asked about how nice her day had been until it was interrupted by the press, she smiled: “Wonderful! Everybody has been so kind.”

Rene was born on October 10, 1918, in the last months of the Great War, but she was keen to tell the Journal that her father wanted a son, rather than a daughter.

She said: “I lost my father in the First World War. He sent a letter [to Rene’s mother] saying, ‘I hope it’s a boy.’”

The school children gave Rene three gifts and she also had a nice cake (Image: Friendly Tuesday Club) The Journal asked Rene what her advice was to any would-be centenarians. She said: “I enjoy life! I don’t think about all the problems I’ve had.”

The interruptions to Rene’s much-loved bingo did not stop, but nobody dared to be mad at the school children from Christ The King School.

The high vis wearing children sang Happy Birthday and Love Is Something If You Give It Away, which charmed them all, including Rene.

They also gave her three gifts: a bouquet of flowers, handmade cards and box of Thorntons chocolates.

Handed a microphone after fighting to blow the candles out on her birthday cake, she said: “I would like to say thank you, thank you so much.

“You don’t know how kind you are, I appreciate it so much. Thank you.”

Design by Charles Elliman

Rene has had 100 per cent attendance at the Friendly Tuesday Club, who play bingo, host dinners and organise outings, as well as holidays.

The club has more than 90 members, with at least 76 attending each week, but Rene is the oldest.

There is a waiting list of about 14 to join, but Friendly Tuesday Club Chairman Andy Derry said people should still inquire.