When the clock chimes midnight tomorrow to mark the start of the new Millennium, Elsie Sellers will reach a milestone that few could contemplate let alone hope to achieve.

For as the New Year begins, Elsie, of Woodside, will celebrate seeing her third century on the planet and her second Millennium.

Born on December 30, 1899, Elsie has lived in Bradford for 58 years and tonight will be raising a glass to toast her centenary year.

According to her 61-year-old daughter Iris Auker, who organised a party for Elsie today, Elsie "looks so good for her age, you'd think she was 80 or so. She's a very special lady".

Elsie herself feels she owes the longevity of her life to "hard work and clean living".

She says: "Life is made a lot easier these days. When I was young my brothers used to have to go rabbiting before school to make sure we had something to eat for our dinner."

Though a little hard of hearing, Elsie is still in good health. She's able to dress herself in the morning and her party piece is to recite the alphabet backwards at speed - a trick she learnt in her school days. Elsie gave up smoking when she was 80 and says she has never drunk to excess. She also says she did not visit a doctor until she was well into middle-age.

And the 100-year-old has a remarkable history. Her brothers, John and Percy Godsmark, both emigrated to Rhodesia, where John worked as a reporter for the Rhodesian Herald, and Percy, proprietor of a diamond mine, became Mayor of the Rhodesian town of Catooma.

Her brother-in-law, John Tidswell, owned the Towers cinema chain that stretched across the North of England. Sister-in-law Blanche Tempest, sister to Elsie's husband Thomas, was featured in the T&A in the 1980s, showing off her high-kicking dancing - at 93. Before her marriage in 1919 to husband Thomas, an ironmonger by trade, Elsie worked 'in service' as a maid. She and Thomas lived in Bradford until his death eighteen years ago after 63 years of marriage.

Elsie's family was set to celebrate her birthday with a special party at her sheltered accommodation. Her son Stan, now aged 79, Iris and Geoff and their daughter Karen, 37, will be there to wish her good tidings, along with her great-grandson Christopher, eight.

And Elsie's tips for a long and prosperous life? "Live a clean life and try and do what you can for others," she said.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.