A CENTENARIAN rolled back the years to celebrate her 100th birthday - at the Irn-Bru Carnival.
Margaret Mitchell, originally from East Kilbride but now lives in Motherwell, is marking the major milestone by a year-long run of celebrations.
As part of her plans, the Irn-Bru Carnival at the SEC - which is also celebrating its centenary this year - invited her, her friends and staff from the Parksprings Care Home for a special party.
It comes ahead of the carnival's final day tomorrow.
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Trips to the Carnival in Glasgow have been a regular occurrence for generations of the Mitchell family, first at its home at the Kelvin Hall and then at the SEC.
And she managed to rekindle that excitement during her trip - taking in the dodgems and hook-a-duck among others.
As the memories came flooding back, Margaret said: “I loved the chair-o-planes and hook a duck when I was younger and loved seeing them and all of the other shows today.
“It is great to be given the chance to participate in the fair which has been such an amazing family event and brought so much joy and happiness to the family over the past 100 years.
“The Carnival sparkles.”
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Greg Cherry, Managing Director of QD Events, added: “It’s a very special birthday for The IRN-BRU Carnival and Margaret. She is an incredible lady who is fitting so much into her centenary year and we thought this was the perfect chance to invite her along to join the celebrations.
“The Carnival has been a fixture in Glasgow for 100 years now and remains as popular as ever. This year has been one of the biggest and best to date.
“We are now entering the final weekend and it was fantastic to see Margaret and her friends enjoying themselves on their day out.”
As part of her year of activities, Margaret has also been ice skating at East Kilbride rink, undergone eight weeks training with the Scottish Opera and learned Thai Chi.
The former RAF veteran also plans to return to the skies for a special skydive.
Rose Brennan, Events Coordinator at Parksprings who runs the Innovative Activity Programme, said: “Margaret is an amazing, cool lady who takes everything in her stride and grateful at 100 to be able to participate in so many new and exciting experiences.
“We try and make our residents' dreams come true.
"Our residents like to experience new and meaningful activities. As Margaret said, “I would never have dreamt at 100 that I would have the joy of all of these new experiences.”
The IRN-BRU Carnival will be open until Sunday 12 January 2020 at the SEC, Glasgow.
For more information and to buy tickets, please visit www.irn-bru-carnival.com.
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